FM sends condolences to Iranian counterpart

On Sunday evening, a large crowd of Iranian youths – expected to be a decisive voting force in the next presidential election – took to the streets around Shohada hospital, where Rafsanjani died, to hold a vigil.

Foreign Minister Hisham Sharaf sent on Monday a cable of condolences to Iranian Foreign Minister Muhammad Javad Zarif on the death of former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. He was a vocal critic of Ahmadinejad and the crackdown that followed his disputed re-election in 2009.

During Rafsanjani’s presidency, Iran worked to rebuild its economy. Supreme Leader Khamenei, a cancer survivor who many had thought would die before Rafsanjani – perhaps to be replaced by Rouhani with Rafsanjani’s support – was gracious in his initial comments, calling Rafsanjani a “companion of struggle” whose loss was “difficult and overwhelming”.

The former president, who served from 1989 to 1997, was extraordinarily influential both in and out of office.

“This can not be compensated”.

“Indeed we belong to Allah, and indeed to Him we will return”.

“He was a revolutionary and freedom-seeking cleric who stuck up for the people’s votes”, said Saeed Karimi, a supporter outside the hospital. Several boycotted the ceremony, including Rafsanjani.

“I see scenes of affection that I can not believe”.

State television suspended programming to announce the death.

Rafsanjani was born in 1934 into a wealthy family in the village of Bahraman in southern Iran.

He studied theology in the holy city of Qom before entering politics in 1963 after the shah’s police arrested Khomeini. It was already a very sensitive affair but how is Mr. Rafsanjani’s death going to influence it?

According to the BBC, Rafsanjani had been a mentor to Rouhani, and supported him after his own attempt to run in the 2013 presidential elections as a reformist candidate, however he was rejected by the powerful Guardian Council. Gobadi said, mentioning the country’s record in executions per capita, the highest in the world, and continuous records of human rights abuse as also recently highlighted by a United Nations expert focusing on human rights in the country.

While Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is too distant to engage with ordinary people, Rafsanjani seemed to be everywhere in recent years. Iran will hold the Assembly of Experts election on February 25, 2016.

After serving two terms as president, Hashemi became the head of the Assembly of Experts in 2007. In addition, the lack of a key moderate voice in country may become particularly important should President Trump and Republican lawmakers soon pursue a more antagonistic foreign policy towards Iran – a shift which most analysts agree would further empower the more conservative elements of the Iranian regime.

Still, Rafsanjani’s long life and relevance in Iranian politics show he will be hard to replace as the country decides the direction of its revolution.