Former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani dies

Former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani passed away on 8 January 2017 following a cardiac arrest. He was 82.

Rafsanjani served two terms as Iran's president from 1989 to 1997.

About Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani
• At the time of his death, he was the chairman of the Expediency Council of Iran that settles disputes between the country's parliament and the Guardian Council.
• Rafsanjani served as president in the early 1990s when Tehran was accused of a executing a wave of assassinations in Europe that targeted regime opponents.
• However, he lost a presidential bid against the former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2005.
• During Ahmadinejad's 2009 re-election campaign, Rafsanjani became a vocal critic blaming the election results that gave Ahmadinejad another overwhelming victory.
• He was a staunch supporter of the nuclear deal, which lifted sanctions on Iran in exchange for curbs on its disputed nuclear program.
• He was the one who helped broker the secret talks with the Reagan administration in the mid-1980s that focused on the US trading arms to Tehran in exchange for its help in freeing Americans kidnapped in Lebanon.
• He began his political career as the consummate insider and adviser to Ayatollah Khomeini.