“Iran never forgets Ayat. Rafsanjani”
“Iranian nation never forget the late Iran’s former president Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani,” said Secretary general of the World Forum for Proximity of the Islamic Schools of Thought, Ayatollah Mohsen Araki, reported Taqrib News Agency (TNA).
Addressing journalists at the sideline of the scientific meetings of “Great Presence of Muhammad Prophet’s (PBUH) Household in Iran and the Formation of Shiite Cultural Capital,” the grand Ayatollah stressed, “Islamic society should be grateful to the late Ayatollah Rafsanjani.
President of Iran top unity center underlined the late ex-president “played a significant role in Islamic Awakening.”
According to the seasoned cleric, during the 8 year imposed war of Iraq, Ayatollah Rafsanjani did a great job in Islamic system stressing.
“The figure in eight years of sacred defense had a significant role and we owe a large part of his war victories to his good command,” pointed out the Secretary General of the World Forum for Proximity of the Islamic Schools of Thought.
Ayatollah Rafsanjani was admitted to Shohada Hospital in northern Tehran on Sunday after suffering a heart attack. He passed away later in the day. He was 82.
Iran is observing three days of national mourning in honor of Ayatollah Rafsanjani.
On Monday, a mourning ceremony was held at Jamaran Mosque in Tehran. President Rouhani along with other senior officials attended the funeral.
Rafsanjani helped establish the Combatant Clergy Association in 1977, which proved fatefully instrumental in the victory of the Islamic Revolution two years later.
He became Iran’s first Speaker of Parliament after the Revolution, serving until 1989.
In the same year, he was elected president, in which position he functioned until 1997.
He was also the chairman of the Expediency Council, a position he kept until his departure.
Since Sunday, messages of condolence have poured in both from home and abroad.
In a sign of mourning, Iranian national flags were also flown at half-staff at the country’s diplomatic missions in a number of countries, including Turkey, Syria and the United Arab Emirates.
