Hojatoleslam Sayyid Hussein Khomeini (in Persian: سید حسین خمینی) (born 1959)[citation needed] is an Iranian scholar and reformist cleric.
[2] In 2003, he declared Iran's reformist movement "finished", questioned the theocratic principle of velayat-e faqih, and "called for a referendum to decide how the country should be governed in the future.
[3] During the same year he visited United States and, in a historic meeting, was received by Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi II, son of the last Shah of Iran.
[8][9] In 2006, he broke "a three-year silence" when he called for American destruction of the Islamic Republic by invasion on the Al-Arabiya television station, saying 'freedom must come to Iran in any possible way, whether through internal or external developments.
"[4] Since returning to Iran, he has been closely monitored by the Iranian government and has been restricted in granting interviews to the Western media,[6] but is thought to "be protected from retribution by his grandmother, Khadijeh Saqafi" (d.