in 1980 Montazeri was a low-ranking and radical cleric. His father and he were both arrested by the Shah's security forces in March 1966. In prison Mohammad was tortured and released in 1968. Trained in the
Fatah camps in Lebanon, Montazeri fought with the
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and other Palestinian and Shi'ite armed groups in the country, Montazeri, Mohtashamipur, and Jalal al-Din Farsi suggested that Iranian army should be sent to
southern Lebanon to fight the
Israeli army which had been
invading the region. In 1978 he occupied the
Mehrabad Airport of Tehran with his 200 armed followers and demanded to go to Libya to search for
Musa Al Sadr, a Lebanese Shia cleric who disappeared in Libya in August 1978. Before the 1979 Iranian revolution Montazeri was one of the people who promoted the idea of the establishment of the
Islamic Revolutionary Guards. In order to export Islamic revolution to other countries he and Mehdi Hashemi founded one of the earliest groups, the
SATJA, in the spring of 1979. In December 1979 he organized a campaign to support and join the Palestinian militants, fighting in the
Lebanese civil war. An account with the name liberation movements was opened in the
Melli Bank to get financial support from Iranians. At the founding and institutionalization phase of the Guards Montazeri became a member of the Revolutionary Guards Leadership Council in 1979 which was formed by the Revolutionary Council to oversee the future tasks of the Guard. He publicly declared in 1980 that the IRGC personnel "were awaiting deployment from Damascus." Montazeri joined and led the
Muslim People's Republic Party and became a member of the
first Majlis in March 1980. On the other hand, his party was disbanded after its members were either arrested or executed. and was the prayer leader in Tehran until his death.
Views Montazeri was one of the most radical followers of Ayatollah Khomeini. Before the Iranian revolution he was close ally of Muammar Gaddafi and advocated strong ties with Libya. The latter goal was mostly achieved through the OLM, In addition, he argued that all Muslims could enter Islamic states without passport or visas. Montazeri supported the development of links with
Shia Muslims in Lebanon. Ghotbzadeh's faction was called previously the
Liberation Movement of Iran, and Mostafa Chamran was also part of it. In addition, Montazeri had serious disagreements with Ayatollah
Mohammad Beheshti, cofounder of the Islamic Republican Party. ==Death and aftermath ==