Iran yesterday began three days of mourning after the death of former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a pillar of the Islamic revolution who became a leading counterweight to hardliners.
Tributes poured in for the moderate cleric, including from Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who was reportedly at Rafsanjani’s bedside before he died of a heart attack, aged 82.
“Islam lost a valuable treasure, Iran an outstanding general, the Islamic revolution a courageous flag-bearer and the Islamic system a rare sage,” Rouhani said.
Photo: AFP
Iran’s political and religious leadership attended a memorial service at Hussainiya Jamaran, a religious hall in northern Tehran run by the family of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic republic.
Rafsanjani, who after serving for two terms became a cautious reformist to offset the hardliners clustered around a successor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is to be buried today at Khomenei’s mausoleum in southern Tehran.
The ISNA news agency said his death was a “great loss for the moderates,” describing the ayatollah as “the sheikh of moderation.”
Rafsanjani was a key backer of Rouhani and supported Iran’s landmark nuclear deal with world powers. Rouhani is expected to stand for a second four-year term in a May vote and has now lost a key supporter in the crucial run-up to the election.
The front pages of yesterday’s newspapers were dominated by the face of Rafsanjani, who served as president from 1989 to 1997, and black banners were raised on Tehran’s streets. All music concerts and television comedy programs were canceled as a sign of respect.
Rafsanjani’s youngest son thanked people mourning his father for their “loyalty and kindness.”
“I see scenes of affection that I cannot believe. People’s prayers for our father console our hearts,” he told state television.
Rafsanjani was born on Aug. 25, 1934, in southern Iran to the family of a wealthy pistachio farmer.
He studied theology in the holy city of Qom before entering politics in 1963 after the shah’s police arrested Khomeini.
Rafsanjani’s presidency, a breathing space after the end of the 1980 to 1988 Iran-Iraq war, was marked by reconstruction, cautious reform and repairs to Iran’s relations with its Arab neighbors.
However, it was also marred by human rights violations, rampant inflation and difficult relations with Europe, not least with Britain after the “death sentence,” or fatwa, handed down to author Salman Rushdie by Khomeini.
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is expected to lead special Islamic prayers performed for the deceased during today’s funeral service.
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