Iran began three days of mourning yesterday after the death of ex-president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a pillar of the Islamic revolution who became a leading counterweight to hardliners, reports AFP from Tehran.
Tributes poured in for the moderate cleric, including from 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.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, will be buried Tuesday at Khomenei’s mausoleum in southern Tehran.