{Ex-Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani dies in hospital after suffering a heart attack, state media reports.}<\/p>\n
Former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani died on Sunday at the age of 82 after suffering a heart attack, according to state media.<\/p>\n
Rafsanjani was a key figure in the foundation of the Islamic republic in 1979, and served as president from 1989 to 1997.<\/p>\n
He was taken to the Shohadaa Hospital in northern Tehran earlier on Sunday with heart problems, the ISNA and Fars news agencies reported.<\/p>\n
“Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was transferred to hospital after a heart attack,” said Reza Soleimani, a speaker of the Expediency Council, Iran’s main political arbitration body which Rafsanjani chaired.<\/p>\n
“Despite the efforts of the doctors he died,” he said, quoted by state broadcaster IRIB.<\/p>\n
Al Jazeera’s Dosra Jabbari, reporting from Tehran, said Rafsanjani’s death was described as a “huge loss” by Iranian officials.<\/p>\n
“His death couldn’t come at a worse time for the country because there are disputes between the current government and the judiciary and Rafsanjani was seen as a mediator,” she said. <\/p>\n
“He would advise on how to deal with such situations in the country. With the news of his death many people are in absolute shock.”<\/p>\n
Following the announcement of Rafsanjani’s death, a crowd gathered outside the hospital in Tehran’s Tajrish neighbourhood where the former president had been taken.<\/p>\n
{{‘Difficult and overwhelming’}}<\/p>\n
Rafsanjani was born on August 25, 1934 in the village of Nough in southern Iran into a wealthy family.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
A confidant of Khomeini, Rafsanjani was the speaker of parliament for two consecutive terms until Khomeini’s death in 1989.<\/p>\n
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, paid tribute to Rafsanjani as a “companion of struggle” despite differences between them.<\/p>\n
“The loss of my companion of struggle, whose cooperation with me dated back 59 years, is difficult and overwhelming,” Khamenei said in a statement quoted by the state broadcaster’s website.<\/p>\n
“The different opinions and interpretations at time in this long period could never entirely break up the friendship” between us, he added.<\/p>\n
Rafsanjani was an influential figure in Iran, and headed the Expediency Council, a body which is intended to resolve disputes between the parliament and the Guardian Council.<\/p>\n
He was also a member of the Assembly of Experts, the clerical body that selects the supreme leader, Iran’s most powerful figure.<\/p>\n
Rafsanjani has been described as “a pillar of the Islamic revolution”.<\/p>\n
His pragmatic policies, economic liberalisation, better relations with the West and empowering Iran’s elected bodies, appealed to many Iranians but was despised by hardliners.<\/p>\n
His death is a big blow to moderates and reformists, depriving them of their most influential supporter in the Islamic establishment.<\/p>\n
He is survived by his wife and five children.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{Ex-Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani dies in hospital after suffering a heart attack, state media reports.} Former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani died on Sunday at the age of 82 after suffering a heart attack, according to state media. Rafsanjani was a key figure in the foundation of the Islamic republic in 1979, and served […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[101],"byline":[2474],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-31680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-internationl","byline-al-jazeera"],"bylines":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31680\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31680"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=31680"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=31680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}