TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iranian state media says influential former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has died at age 82.
Iranian media earlier said Rafsanjani been hospitalized because of a heart condition.
Rafsanjani, who served as president from 1989 to 1997, is a leading politician who has often played kingmaker in the country’s turbulent politics. He supported President Hassan Rouhani.
Rafsanjani was head of the Expediency Council, a body that advises Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and in March he won a seat on the clerical body that will one day decide Khamenei’s successor.
Now there was a strong leader, a great leader, the kind of leader America should have, over the kind of country we should want to be.
He didn’t rule over an army of awful generals. He didn’t put up with giving money away to China. He didn’t make terrible trade agreements. He had no Mexican immigrant problem. He…
Oh, this isn’t about Putin? My bad.
Do we love and admire this guy or not? I’m not sure. Did he lie, cheat, steal, bully, and fondle women?
I’m sorry to read this. He was a courageous, honest, good leader, none of which we have in America anymore. Like Putin, he had the guts to tell it like it is, to lead his people and support them, and to do his best to stop Obama / dubya from destroying his country and people. We don’t see many such great leaders as Putin and Rafsanjani anymore, and never in America again.
In Iranian terms Rafsanjani was a moderate. And he was a large part of President Rouhani’s support across the Iranian government. He was a counter balance to the revolutionary Guard fanatics. I’m sure trump understands none of this. Or much cares to know.
No he did not. He’s the antithesis of trump. He was actually a quite rational and logical guy. Not like the 3 yr old in a 70 yr old body we have elected.
You have a very strange idea of what is great. Putin is no nice guy. He murders those individuals who oppose him. He undermines the governments he dislikes. He has ordered destructive hacking in Crimea, Ukraine, and the Baltic States as well as our RNC and DNC and various computer systems of our Federal Government. He invaded the territory of a sovereign neighbor, Ukraine, seizing the Crimea from them and today occupies areas in the eastern part of their country. I am sure the resident of Kiev have a somewhat different opinion of Putin than you do.
In the interest of goodwill, Mango Musilini should go to Iran on his personal plane to attend the funeral. He has a way of turning former enemies into friends, don’t 'cha know!