January 26, 2025
Former President Mohammad Khatami has sued Hossein Shariatmadari, the editor of the hardline daily Kayhan, over his claims that Khatami conspired with American philanthropist George Soros to instigate a “velvet revolution” in Iran.
The lawsuit marks the latest chapter in the ongoing brawl between the two men.
Over the past 15 years, Shariatmadari has frequently repeated his claim that in 2006, a year after leaving office, Khatami met with Soros twice during a visit to the United States, which the editor and other hardliners consider an act of treason.
Shariatmadari insists that Khatami, in collusion with Soros, attempted to engineer a “velvet” or “color revolution” in Iran after Khatami left the presidency in 2005. Shariatmadari also holds both men responsible for the Green Movement protests that erupted after the 2009 presidential election.
In reaction to the lawsuit, Reformist journalist Ahmad Zeidabadi said Khatami should not feel any need to defend himself. “I would clearly state, if I were Mr. Khatami, that I do not need the permission of the managing editor of Kayhan to meet with international figures, and I do not consider meeting with Mr. Soros to be a criminal or unjustified act to defend myself against it,” Zeidabadi said in a Telegram post January 22.
In a previous lawsuit filed by Khatami in 2018, Shariatmadari refused to appear in court. According to Khatami’s lawyers, the Judiciary later closed the case without explanation.
Shariatmadari’s allegations hinge primarily on the confession of Kian Tajbakhsh, an Iranian-American scholar who worked for Soros’s Open Society Foundation in Iran during Khatami’s term as president. Tajbakhsh claimed that Khatami and Soros had met in the US, with Mohammad-Javad Zarif, then Iran’s ambassador to the UN, also present.
Tajbakhsh later withdrew his confession, asserting it was extracted under coercion by the state’s security forces.
Kayhan used to be a major daily, but its circulation is understood to have dwindled dramatically in recent years, with Iran International reporting it to be less than 10,000 today, “with most subscribers being government entities.”