Iran's former president Rafsanjani dies at 82

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Former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani died in hospital on Sunday after suffering a heart attack, the ISNA and Fars news agencies reported.

Rafsanjani, who was 82, was a pivotal figure in the foundation of the Islamic republic in 1979, and served as president from 1989 to 1997. He had been admitted to the Shohadaa Hospital in northern Tehran, one of his relatives, Hossein Marashi, was quoted as saying by the agencies.

This file photo taken on December 21, 2015 shows Iranian former president and head of the Expediency Council, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani arriving for a press conference after registering his candidacy for the upcoming Assembly of Experts elections at the interior ministry in Tehran. /CFP Photo‍

Rafsanjani was born on August 25, 1934 in the village of Nough in southern Iran into a wealthy family. He studied theology in the holy city of Qom before entering politics in 1963 after the Shah's police arrested the founder of the Islamic republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

A confidant of Khomeini, Rafsanjani was the speaker of parliament for two consecutive terms until Khomeini's death in 1989. Rafsanjani's presidency, a breathing space after the end of the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war, was marked by reconstruction, cautious reform and repairs to Iran's relations with its Arab neighbors. He was viewed to have great diplomatic skills and when he visited China and Japan in 1985 he was received as a head of state.

This file photo taken on July 17, 2009 shows Iranian influential cleric and former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani delivering his sermon during Friday prayers at Tehran University in the Iranian capital. /CFP Photo

After serving a maximum two consecutive terms, Rafsanjani played an important role in the election of the reformist Mohammad Khatami, who succeeded him as president from 1997 to 2005. Rafsanjani sought a return to the presidency in 2005 but lost to hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a conservative backlash.

It was a bitter defeat, but rather than retreating from public view, he remained in the limelight. Rafsanjani emerged as a moderate counter-figure to the ultra-hardliners clustered around Ahmadinejad -- under whom Iran's relations with the West plummeted -- and criticized the crackdown that followed Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election in 2009.

In recent years though, his influence within state institutions had waned. In 2013, his candidacy for the presidential election was rejected because of his advanced age. The next year he delivered crucial support for the eventual winner, Hassan Rouhani, a moderate with whom he has a warm rapport. He was an important backer of the deal Rouhani struck with world powers for sanctions to be lifted in exchange for curbs on Iran's nuclear program.

Iran's President Hasan Rouhani sits next to the national flag on his first official day in office in Tehran on August 3, 2013. /CFP Photo

The death of Rafsandjani is seen as a huge blow for Iran’s reform movement, and for Rouhani, who is running for election in May. Rouhani released a statement in Farsi reading: “The soul of the big man of revolution and politics, symbol of patience and strength has ascended to heaven.”

Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei said Rafsanjani’s loss is overwhelming and very hard to bear, adding that the two were friends for 59 years.

Rafsanjani was always a member of Iran's top clerical body, the Assembly of Experts, charged with appointing -- and if required dismissing -- the country's supreme leader. Rafsanjani chaired the influential committee for several years. He also held the chairmanship of Iran's main political arbitration body, the Expediency Council, since 1990, when he was appointed by Khomeini's successor as supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

(Adapted from an article by AFP)

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