Beheshti Flows with the Tide

He is secretary of the ruling Revolutionary Council, president of Iran's Supreme Court and an ayatullah--the highest spiritual title in the Shi'ite branch of Islam. He is, in the view of Western diplomats, an ambitious powerbroker who puts personal game above political and even religious scruples. And as head of the Islamic Republic Party, the Ayatullah Seyyed Mohammed Beheshti, 51, represents the most serious opposition within Iran to President Banisadr. Beheshti, says a senior civil servant in Tehran who knows both men well, "won't let Banisadr sit back and enjoy the job."

Their antagonism is based less on personality than on principle. Despite his Sorbonne education, Banisadr is a devout Muslim layman who believes that the answers to all of Iran's problems can be found in Islam. Despite his clerical robes and title, Beheshti is a wily political pragmatist who uses ideology as a means to power. Twenty years ago, Beheshti was a writer of religious texts for public schools in Iran. A university professor who knew him then recalls that "he never argued with anyone. He seemed to believe that everyone is right. " Beheshti has apparently retained that ability to endorse seemingly contradictory views without committing himself to either one. He is an expert equivocator. During a televised debate with critics of the election process, Beheshti somehow managed to parry their points--and then lectured them piously on the need for calm in political debates. Said one acquaintance: "He has always been like that, impossible to nail down."

Born in Isfahan, the son of a clergyman, Beheshti began his political career in 1965, when three of Iran's ranking ayatullahs nominated him as spiritual leader of a mosque for Iranian immigrants in Hamburg, West Germany. His five years there aroused much criticism from dissident Iranian students, who accused Beheshti of ignoring the Shah's repression and concentrating on purely religious issues. Beheshti insisted that he was writing a book on Islamic government that would clarify his political views, but such a work has yet to see print. While in Hamburg, he would not allow any written criticisms of the Shah to appear in a newspaper published by the Islamic student associations.

Beheshti returned to Iran in 1970, at a time when the Shah was trying to uproot all opposition to his regime. His associates at the time recall that Beheshti remained studiously noncommittal. "Beheshti would never side with anyone " says one clerical colleague. "The man was intelligent, capable, knowledgeable and charismatic, but his politics were cynical." Two years ago, with opposition to the Shah growing, Beheshti finally joined the forces led by the Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini, which were calling for an end to the monarchy. Yet even then Beheshti attempted to hedge his bets. During the revolution, he tried to ensure that the instruments of the Shah's power--the secret police and the army --would remain intact and would merely shift allegiance to the clerics. He also tried to arrange a meeting between the Shah's last Prime Minister, Shahpour Bahktiar, and Khomeini, but the Ayatullah flatly refused.

As head of the Islamic Republic Party, Beheshti was primarily responsible for forcing the resignation of Iran's first postrevolution Prime Minister, Mehdi Bazargan--who has neither forgiven nor forgotten. Beheshti endorsed the militants takeover of the U.S. embassy, and supports their refusal to turn the hostages over to the government. Once again, many Iranians believe, Beheshti is motivated less by ideology than by expediency and could well abandon the students if their cause seems lost. Observers note that Beheshti has never allowed the charter of his party to be published. Says one critic: "He does not want to commit himself to a rigid framework of action. He has to move with the tide. " And he adds: "We have not seen the end of Beheshti or his party."

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