mr. khomeini himself, after seeing mr. ahmadinejad had a very rough time dealing with mr. khomeini, maybe the voters will seek a stable government, if he has a good relationship or better relationship with mr. khomeini. so that could be some issues people would look into. >> stable but still it's not going to be too much of his relationship with the united states. >> of course the united states has their own interest and issues against iran. so does iran. >>> people in oklahoma are trying to get their lives back to normal after a tornado leveled houses, businesses and schools. authorities say the twister killed 24 people, including nine children. more are than 200 were injured. residents began returning home to clear debris and collect valuables. this man says all five members of his family weathered the storm in a tub. >> yes. this is the bathtub my kids and wife and i were in. >> it is a little hard to believe but the important thing was my family's safe. >> some people have been taking shelter in a church an other make shift facilities. food, water and relief supplies ha

mr. khomeini, who is the supreme leader to the islamic republic. while mr. ghalibaf is a known technocrat but he still has some differences with the leadership. so in the end, there may be some sort of a contest between these three personnels. but i would see that mr. khamenei and the leadership of iran today would not want to see sort of a repetition of what happened after the 2009 elections which caused a major disruption in the state affairs. if it happens today or if it's repeated again today, it would become sort of a pretext for other countries to intervene and criticize iran, which is very dangerous at this moment. so in the end there would be no say serious candidate contender or serious contender against the conservative camp. that would be the forthcoming election. >> that was koichiro tanaka of the institute of energy economics japan. >>> people living in some parts of northeastern japan have grown frustrated with the recovery. some say reconstruction after the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster two years ago is moving forward at a painfully

mr. khomeini. >> rose: one solution that fascinates me is qatar. >> qatar and the saudi royal family have a rocky relationship going back many years and i think they realize the only way to maintain their independence, maintain their sovereignty is to really throw that money out there, buy the influence, whether it's financing the muslim brother heed part of the syrian revolution just to make sure they maintain -- >> no matter who wins they've got -- >> rose: they've got a stake. >> and i think that explains it because otherwise, yes, it's the mystery of the modern world, a tiny country basically buying itself a big seat at the table. >> rose: if someone said to you-- as i'm saying now-- so wither the arab spring. who would you say? >> if you asked me that question two years ago i would have given a cautiously optimistic assessment. today i'm much less optimistic. i see that the momentum that we saw, tunisia, egypt, libya has hid a brick wall in syria. and the whole sectarian issue-- which has always been out there but started in iraq following the american invasion-- has really come to t

ayatollah khomeini was also a practitioner mr. call belief, things along the line of sunni islam. there were many clerics who invaded as a practitioner for some forbidden suspect ideas and the mysticism can lead to activism and can make you more of a political activist by showing you the perfectibility of man and there are a whole bunch of different things here that are complex. but if you have a direct line to god which is what mystics think you have a greater ability to shape into the human role, too and that is something i find to be an interesting parallel between these two men. >> host: where do you see the story of poland and the catholic church leading through today? and very the have moved on and they've moved on from that and we have a new pope today and a story that is very much moved out of europe where the church is on the decline. does this chapter of your book have relevance three today? >> guest: when you look at the catholic church and politics in the 1970's it is the way that the church is very, very effective when is an end of the opposition. when it isn't aligne

make these statements after two meetings one with ayatollah khomeini into one on and the other one with the russian deputy foreign minister mr book done over here in beirut following those meetings and saying it has been issued those statements about syria's real friends not allowing it to fall into us is ready or i would call either hand so i think what you have now is that iran and hezbollah now have a new significant ally of real significant weight which is russia which is returning to the middle east seen once again so i think that if we do have an escalation iran will intervene hezbollah will intervene and i think also here we might speak about our russian intervention or some kind of a russian role as well because russia clearly has been very very much present and are in very much you know they're saying i am here and i have a significant say in what happens for many months indeed for many months indeed russia has been one of the only world leaders to say we must talk to all sides of this ongoing conflict a beirut based journalist middle east expert risk a great pleasure to have you on today thanks for sharing your sun