Fatemeh Hashemi, daughter of Iran's former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, places her head on the shoulder of her brother Mahdi while they mourn over the coffin of their father, at the Jamaran mosque in northern Tehran, Iran, Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017. Rafsanjani died Sunday after a decades-long career in the ruling elite, where his moderate views were not always welcome but his cunning guided him through revolution, war and the country's turbulent politics. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Fatemeh Hashemi, daughter of Iran's former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, places her head on the shoulder of her brother Mahdi while they mourn over the coffin of their father, at the Jamaran mosque in northern Tehran, Iran, Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017. Rafsanjani died Sunday after a decades-long career in the ruling elite, where his moderate views were not always welcome but his cunning guided him through revolution, war and the country's turbulent politics. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) Credit: Vahid Salemi

By Farshid Motahari

dpa

TEHRAN, Iran — Former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, 82, died Sunday in Tehran, Iranian state media reports said.

Rafsanjani had been admitted to hospital in the Iranian capital during the morning with cardiac arrhythmia.

Rafsanjani was one of the architects of the Islamic Revolution that deposed the shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, in 1979 and established a religious state.

Considered a moderate and mentor of the current president, Hassan Rowhani, Rafsanjani was president from 1989 and 1997. He was also one of the richest men in the country.

Born in 1934 in Bahreman in southeast Iran, the cleric worked his way up the political ladder to become chairman of the parliament before rising to president

When he left the presidency he successfully campaigned for reformist Mohammad Khatami to replace him, setting him on a collision course with the hard-line elements in government.

In 2005, he ran again for the presidency, but was defeated by the relatively unknown Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

After Ahmadinejad’s victory, Rafsanjani isolated himself increasingly from the arch-conservative clergy, actively campaigning against the hard-liners, who branded him a dissident and banned him from leading Friday prayers in Tehran.

Rafsanjani did not retire and returned to the political stage in 2013 when his protege Rowhani won the presidential election and went on to make a nuclear deal with world powers, including the United States, that led to the lifting of economic sanctions.