The Committee for Welcoming Imam Khomeyni is the name of an organization constituted by the revolutionary people who, under the supervision of the Council of the Islamic Revolution, were responsible for making the preparations for the arrival of Imam Khomeyni, performing the welcoming ceremonies, and most importantly, protecting him.
After the departure of Mohammad-Reza Shah from Iran on January 16, 1979, Imam Khomeyni, as he promised to the people that “I would return to you soon,” informed the fighters and the Council of the Islamic Revolution through his son Haj Sayyed Ahmad Khomeyni about his decision to return to the country quickly and without delay. Ayatollah Mortaza Motahhari, who chaired the Council of the Islamic Revolution, immediately conveyed Imam Khomeyni’s message to other activists of the movement, and the first meeting was held at the house of Ayatollah Sayyed Mohammad Beheshti to make preliminary arrangements for the arrival of Imam Khomeyni. At that meeting, after presenting opinions and discussing the issue of the arrival of Imam Khomeyni in the country, the Central Council of Imam Khomeyni’s Welcoming Committee was set up.
Each one of the members of the Central Council of the Committee was a member of the Welcoming Committee and acted as an intermediary with the Welcoming Committee and the active organizations in the Revolution. The members of the Central Council of Imam Khomeyni’s Welcoming Committee included: Ayatollah Mortaza Motahhari, the liaison to the Council of the Islamic Revolution; Ayatollah Mohammad Mofatteh and Ayatollah Fazlollah Mahdizadeh-Mahallati, members of the Committee and the liaisons to the Combatant Clergy Association; Hashem Sabbaghian, a member of the Committee and the liaison to the Freedom Movement of Iran; Asadollah Badamchian, a member of the Committee and the liaison to the Islamic Coalition Party; Dr. Kazem Sami, a member of the Committee and the liaison to Jama (Revolutionary Movement of Muslim People of Iran); Hoseyn Shah-Hoseyni, a member of the committee and the liaison to the National Front; Ali-Asghar Tehranchi, a member of the committee and the liaison to the market; Ali Danesh-Monfared, a member of the committee and the liaison to the Islamic Association of Teachers of Iran.
After the formation of the Central Council, the first and most important issue was to find a suitable place of residence for Imam Khomeyni, as well as the activities of the Welcoming Committee. Imam Khomeyni had some concerns regarding his place of residence. He had set three conditions for his residence: 1) It should be located in one of the areas close to 24 Esfand Square (Islamic Revolution Square) in Tehran. 2) This place should not be private or public property. 3) The type of activity of this place should be in line with the goals of the Islamic Movement; Therefore, “Refah School” was chosen as the place of the residence of Imam Khomeyni.
After this decision, the first meeting of Imam Khomeyni’s Welcoming Committee was held in the first hours of January 21, 1979, in Refah School in which Ayatollah Motahhari and Hashem Sabbaghian were elected as the chairman and the deputy chairman respectively. To advance its goals, the Central Council of the Welcoming Committee divided the members into groups giving each a specific task. These groups, each ran by one of the revolutionary fighters included:
1) The propagation group was responsible for undertaking all propagation activities, including reproducing the leaflets and informing people of the demonstrations, conveying the messages of Imam Khomeyni, as well as preparing slogans and so on.
2) The security group was responsible for all-round care of the whole building of the Welcoming Committee and its surroundings, as well as providing the security of the roads and streets especially from the airport to Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery as well as protecting Imam Khomeyni.
3) The logistical group was responsible for providing all the financial facilities and equipment needed.
4) The group for planning and holding ceremonies was responsible for preparing and arranging the programs form the time of Imam Khomeyni’s arrival until he settled at Refah School. This unit was even responsible for organizing forces inside the airport hall and preparing a car to transport Imam Khomeyni’s companions from the airport to Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery.
5) The internal planning and security group within the Welcoming Committee was responsible for introducing and appointing the person or persons to carry out the works within the Committee, planning for the security teams as well as preparing identification cards for those who wanted to enter the Welcoming Committee.
6) The provincial group was responsible for establishing regular communication with the cities and sending announcements and news, as well as receiving news and information and possible needs of the cities.
7) The group of journalists, which was organized into two sections: domestic and foreign journalists, who provided news coverage about Imam Khomeyni.
In addition to these seven groups, there were other independent groups such as public relations, an information unit and the unit of the door guards. There were subgroups within these groups that were responsible for accelerating and facilitating the fulfillment of the tasks. These subgroups included the internal propagation group, the slogan group, audio and video, the press, publications, television, telex, and a group of physicians.
The Welcoming Committee at that short time tried to organize its members in the best way so that to get work done properly, and for this purpose, it even tried to use all possible capacity in the country to advance the goals of the Committee. In this way, they cooperated with the telecommunications company in setting up telecommunication systems to facilitate communications. Furthermore, with the help of the Electricity Distribution Company, the Committee managed to use the machines equipped with wireless communication systems.
This extensive activity sought a more sensitive and important goal, and that was protecting Imam Khomeyni after entering the country, a responsibility which many groups of revolutionary activists wanted to undertake. Therefore, the Welcoming Committee decided that part of this important responsibility be assigned to the logistics group and Mohsen Rafiqdoust took charge of it. In the security group, which was responsible for protecting Imam Khomeyni, two members of the Welcoming Committee (Ali Danesh-Monfared and Mohsen Rafiqdoust) were assigned to evaluate and analyze different groups and then delegate the responsibility of protecting Imam Khomeyni to one of them. Hence, after evaluating various groups the above responsibility was given to seven groups that later founded the “Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution Organization.” In the meantime, despite all the insistence and recommendations of some of Imam Khomeyni’s entourage in Paris, no responsibility was given to the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization.
Thus, the responsibility of protecting Imam Khomeyni and controlling the streets especially from the airport to Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery, as well as Refah and Alavi Schools, were assigned to teams, the most important of which was the team led by Mohammad Boroujerdi. This team was responsible for protecting Imam Khomeyni. The next step was to prepare weapons and train these teams, which was done quickly. Afterwards, these teams were trained and armed.
Given all these predictions and actions, the widespread presence of the people in the Welcoming Ceremony of Imam Khomeyni was such that the Committee could not carry out part of its plans but what was important in the meantime was protecting Imam Khomeyni in which they were successful.
Although it seemed that the activities of the Welcoming Committee were ended after Imam Khomeyni settled in the Refah and Alavi Schools, many of its members remained active in the Council of the Islamic Revolution and later played a role in managing the affairs of the country.
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