Hassan Khomeini

Sayyed Hassan Khomeini (born 3 December 1972, Persian: سيد حسن خمينی) is a "mid-ranking" Iranian cleric. He is the grandson of the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ruhollah Khomeini, and son of the late Ahmad Khomeini. His mother is Fatemeh Tabatabai. Of Khomeini's 15 grandchildren he has been called "the most prominent" and the one "who many think could have a promising political future." He is in charge of Mausoleum of Khomeini where his grandfather and father are buried, and has had official meetings with officials such as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah. He is also teaching in the holy city of Qom, and has published his first book on Islamic sects.

He has been described as having "expressed frustration with some policies of a regime dominated by fundamentalists," such as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In an interview in February 2008, Hassan spoke out against military interference in politics. Soon after, in what some observers believe may have been retaliation, an article in a publication tied to president Ahmadinejad accused him of corruption, "claiming that he drove a BMW, backed rich politicians and was indifferent to the suffering of the poor." this was "the first time in the history of the Islamic Republic" that one of Khomeini's offspring was "publicly insulted," according to the Iranian daily newspaper Kargozaran. More recently, Hassan met with reformers before the 2009 election and has met personally with defeated presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi and "supported his call to cancel the election results."