DUBAI (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of Iranians massed in central Tehran on Tuesday for the funeral of former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, an influential figurehead of the Islamic Republic whose pragmatism led to a rift with Iran’s supreme leader.

Rafsanjani, who died on Sunday aged 82, was buried next to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolution in 1979 who founded its system of theocratic rule.

Rafsanjani’s policies of economic liberalisation and better relations with the West attracted fierce supporters and equally fierce critics during his life.

While many of his opponents turned out to honour him, and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei stressed their close bond, what was intended by the state as a show of unity was clouded by the chants of thousands opposition supporters, as well as the absence of reformist ex-president Mohammad Khatami.

An eyewitness told Reuters on the phone from Tehran: “Some were chanting slogans asking for political prisoners to be released, some hardliners were shouting ‘Death to America!’. But they didn’t clash. Everyone was respectful.”

Some of the chants called for the release of former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi and of Mehdi Karoubi, a cleric and former speaker of parliament who lost the disputed 2009 presidential election to incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Both men refused to accept the results of that election and were placed under house arrest while Rafsanjani, who had backed them, was politically isolated along with his family.

KHATAMI ABSENT

Two separate sources said Hashemi’s daughter Faezeh, jailed for six months in 2012 on charges of anti-government propaganda, had told people at the funeral that Khatami had been banned from attending. On state television’s live coverage, the opposition chants were drowned out by solemn music.

As a leading power-broker, Rafsanjani helped Khamenei to secure Iran’s most powerful position, that of supreme leader, after Khomeini’s death in 1989, and won election as president himself a few months later.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Iran's President Hassan Rouhani touch the coffin of former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani during his funeral ceremony in Tehran, Iran January 10, 2017. Leader.ir/Handout via REUTERS

However, their friendship gradually turned into rivalry as Rafsanjani, who continued to wield enormous influence even after his eight years as president ended, sided with reformists who promoted greater freedom, while Khamenei interpreted the values of the Islamic Republic much more conservatively.

In his condolence message, Khamenei said political differences had never been able to “entirely break up” their nearly 60 years of friendship.

Streets were filled overnight with billboards that showed a picture of the two men smiling and chatting as close friends.

“No one will be like Hashemi for me,” the billboards quoted Khamenei as saying, using Rafsanjani’s first family name.

KHAMENEI’S PRAYER

It was Khamenei who said the final prayer over Rafsanjani’s body in the University of Tehran courtyard where the late president delivered many of his sermons during Friday prayers.

Politicians, military commanders and religious figures from all camps stood behind him.

President Hassan Rouhani, the head of parliament, the head of the judiciary and senior Khamenei advisers stood in the first line at the service, while cabinet ministers and the deceased leader’s relatives filled the rows behind them.

Rafsanjani’s body, sealed in a metal coffin with his white turban on top, was then brought in procession down Revolution Street in central Tehran, where hundreds of thousands of people came out in cold winter weather to pay tribute.

Among those attending were Revolutionary Guards Commander Qassem Soleimani, leading Iranian Sunni cleric Molavi Abdolhamid Ismaeelzahi, several of Khomeini’s grandsons and even a number of Iranian movie stars.

Slideshow (7 Images)

Rafsanjani’s death is a blow to Rouhani, whom he had backed in the 2013 presidential election and who now faces re-election having resolved Iran’s long nuclear standoff with the West but shown little of the economic payoff that he had promised.

Rouhani’s deputy chief of staff, Hamid Aboutalebi, tweeted: “The glorious presence of people of Tehran in the funeral and their tearful farewell show that they will never forget Rafsanjani’s moderate thoughts and his allies.”

Rafsanjani was a member of the Assembly of Experts, the clerical body that selects the supreme leader. His absence from that debate, whenever it happens, means the chances of a pragmatist succeeding Khamenei are reduced.</s>Story highlights Rafsanjani died Sunday at the age of 82

He will be buried in Khomeini's crypt

Tehran (CNN) Hundreds of thousands of Iranians gathered in and around Tehran University Tuesday for the funeral of former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

State television showed crowds pouring onto the streets around the campus where the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, led prayers for Rafsanjani despite the differences between the two men.

President Hassan Rouhani, parliament speaker Ali Larijani and his brother, judiciary chief Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani, joined the prayers.

Rafsanjani died Sunday at the age of 82 after suffering a heart attack.

Three days of official mourning began on Monday.

JUST WATCHED Mohsen Milani, professor of politics at the University of South Florida, talks about Rafsanjani's legacy. Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Mohsen Milani, professor of politics at the University of South Florida, talks about Rafsanjani's legacy. 04:31

Read More</s>Iranians gather for funeral of former leader Rafsanjani

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran is holding an hours-long funeral ceremony for the late Iranian president, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, following his death over the weekend at the age of 82.

Thousands of Tehran residents and government officials have gathered on the Tehran University campus, where Rafsanjani's casket is on display. Authorities have declared Tuesday a public holiday so Iranians can commemorate Rafsanjani.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is later to hold prayers by Rafsanjani's casket.

A man weeps during a mourning ceremony for former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who died on Sunday after suffering a heart attack, at the Jamaran mosque in north Tehran, Iran, Monday, Jan. 9, 2017. Mourners from all walks of life in Iran ¿ from the country's president to passers-by on the street ¿ paid their respects Monday to the late Iranian leader Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Rafsanjani will be buried in mausoleum of the late leader of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Rafsanjani, a close aide to both Khomeini and Khamenei, served as president from 1989 to 1997. He was a major supporter of moderate President Hassan Rouhani and served as a go-between for reformers seeking outreach to the world and hard-liners.

Front pages of the Monday, Jan. 9, 2017, edition of Iranian newspapers, published with pictures of former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who died on Sunday after suffering a heart attack. Newspapers in Iran published front-page photographs of Rafsanjani, while state television aired archival clips of his comments and speeches. Mourners from all walks of life in Iran - from the country's president to passers-by on the street - paid their respects to him. The country is observing three days of mourning. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)</s>" Iran is holding an hours-long funeral ceremony for the late Iranian president, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, following his death over the weekend at the age of 82. Thousands of Tehran residents and government officials have gathered on the Tehran University campus, where Rafsanjani's casket is on display. Authorities have declared Tuesday a public holiday so Iranians can commemorate Rafsanjani.

Start the conversation, or Read more at The New Zealand Herald.</s>Iranians pour out on the streets as Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who served as president from 1989 to 1997, to be buried.

Hundreds of thousands of mourners led by Iran's supreme leader have gathered at Tehran University for the funeral of former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

State television showed people pouring on to the streets around the campus where Ayatollah Ali Khamenei led the ceremony for Rafsanjani on Tuesday.

Khamenei stood next to President Hassan Rouhani and Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani as they prayed in front of Rafsanjani's closed casket.

Images posted on social media also showed Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani attending the funeral procession.

However, there have been reports that reformist leader and former president Mohammad Khatami was banned from attending Tuesday's event.

Rafsanjani, who died of a heart attack on Sunday at the age of 82, will be buried inside the crypt of Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution.

Khomeini's mausoleum is in south Tehran near the capital's largest airport.

Leaders of all of Iran's competing political factions also attended the funeral.

Black banners were raised in Tehran and some posters showed the supreme leader and Rafsanjani together smiling. Another poster said "Goodbye, old combatant".

Authorities have declared Tuesday a public holiday so Iranians can commemorate Rafsanjani.

Free bus or metro travel was provided to the funeral venue.

Since Rafsanjani's death, messages of condolence have poured in from home and abroad.

Even the White House sent a message, unprecedented since the 1979 revolution that led to the cutting of ties between Tehran and Washington.

Rafsanjani, a close aide to both Khomeini and Khamenei, served as president from 1989 to 1997.

He was also a major supporter of Rouhani and served as a go-between for reformers seeking outreach to the world and hard-liners.</s>Iranians pour out onto the streets as Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who served as president from 1989 to 1997, to be buried.

Tens of thousands of mourners led by Iran's supreme leader have gathered at Tehran University for the funeral of former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

State television showed people pouring on to the streets around the campus where Ayatollah Ali Khamenei led the ceremony for Rafsanjani on Tuesday.

Khamenei stood next to President Hassan Rouhani and Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani as they prayed in front of Rafsanjani's closed casket.

Images posted on social media also showed Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani attending the funeral procession.

Rafsanjani, who died of a heart attack on Sunday at the age of 82, will be buried inside the crypt of Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution, according to Al Jazeera's Dorsa Jabari, who is reporting from the Iranian capital.

"It's a very somber occasion in the Islamic Republic," Jabari said. "This was something very unexpected. Many ordinary people, who weren't necessarily even a fan of Rafsanjani, or his family, expressed their views that they were just shocked and extremely saddened by the loss."

Khomeini's mausoleum is in south Tehran near the capital's largest airport.

Leaders of all of Iran's competing political factions also attended the funeral.

Black banners were raised in Tehran and some posters showed the supreme leader and Rafsanjani together smiling. Another poster said "good bye, old combatant".

Authorities have declared Tuesday a public holiday so Iranians can commemorate Rafsanjani.

Free bus or metro travel was provided to the funeral venue.

Since Rafsanjani's death, messages of condolences have poured in both from at home and and abroad.

Even the White House sent a message, unprecedented since the 1979 revolution that led to the cutting of ties between Tehran and Washington.

Rafsanjani, a close aide to both Khomeini and Khamenei, served as president from 1989 to 1997.

He was also a major supporter of Rouhani and served as a go-between for reformers seeking outreach to the world and hard-liners.</s>A man weeps during a mourning ceremony for former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who died on Sunday after suffering a heart attack, at the Jamaran mosque in north Tehran, Iran, Monday, Jan. 9, 2017.

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran is holding an hours-long funeral ceremony for the late Iranian president, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, following his death over the weekend at the age of 82.

Thousands of Tehran residents and government officials have gathered on the Tehran University campus, where Rafsanjani's casket is on display. Authorities have declared Tuesday a public holiday so Iranians can commemorate Rafsanjani.

 

 Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will hold prayers by Rafsanjani's casket.

Rafsanjani will be buried in mausoleum of the late leader of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Rafsanjani, a close aide to both Khomeini and Khamenei, served as president from 1989 to 1997. He was a major supporter of moderate President Hassan Rouhani and served as a go-between for reformers seeking outreach to the world and hard-liners.</s>The streets of Tehran were flooded with hundreds of thousands of mourners attending the funeral of former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani on 10 January.

The funeral prayers were held at the Tehran University campus and led by the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Incumbent President Hassan Rouhani, for whom Rafsanjani was a mentor and a political ally, was also on the frontline of the ceremony, which was attended by both hardliners and reformists figures in the country.

Rafsanjani's casket was buried at the shrine of late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, to whom the former president was a close adviser at the time of the overthrowing of the western-backed shah and the ensuing Islamic revolution of 1979. At the funeral, mourners raised black banners and posters picturing Khomeini and Rafsanjani smiling together, the BBC reported.

Rafsanjani died on 8 January of a heart attack, at 82 years of age. As one of the central figures of Iranian politics, the regime loses a strong leader, who ruled the country as president from 1989 to 1997, coming to power just a few months before Khomeini's death.

Known at the time for his ruthlessness, suspected of sponsoring killings of political dissidents abroad and accused of human rights abuses, Rafsanjani also helped fund the country's controversial nuclear programme. In recent years he reportedly backed the nuclear disarmament deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which was implemented in January 2016 in what was hailed as a victory of diplomacy in containing Iran's nuclear threat.

In 2005, Rafsanjani ran again for the presidency, but was defeated by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whom he opposed again in 2009, when Ahmadinejad's re-election was tainted by widespread accusation of fraud, sparking a protest known as "the Green movement". This put Rafsanjani on the opposite side of Ahmadinejad-backer Ayatollah Ali Khameini, who succeeded Khomeini as Iran's supreme leader, and began a rift among the country's leadership. He was seen as a counterbalance for the more radical forces in the country.

"I rarely attend religious ceremonies, but I am here as an Iranian who cannot forget Rafsanjani's contribution to developing political sphere in favour of the people in recent years," Nima Sheikhi, a computer teacher at a private school who attended the funeral, told the Associated Press.

Several videos filmed at the gathering show the crowds chanting the name of opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi, who ran against Ahmadinejad for the presidency in 2009 and led the protests following allegations of vote rigging in the election, which became to be known as "the Green movement."

Mousavi has been under house arrest since 2011, along with his wife and fellow opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi, after they called Iranians to organise protests in the country like the Tunisians and Egyptians were doing during the Arab Spring.</s>TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran is holding an hours-long funeral ceremony for the late Iranian president, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, following his death over the weekend at the age of 82.

Thousands of Tehran residents and government officials have gathered on the Tehran University campus, where Rafsanjani’s casket is on display. Authorities have declared Tuesday a public holiday so Iranians can commemorate Rafsanjani.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is later to hold prayers by Rafsanjani’s casket.

Rafsanjani will be buried in mausoleum of the late leader of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Rafsanjani, a close aide to both Khomeini and Khamenei, served as president from 1989 to 1997. He was a major supporter of moderate President Hassan Rouhani and served as a go-between for reformers seeking outreach to the world and hard-liners.</s>Tens of thousands of Iranians massed in central Tehran on Tuesday for the funeral of former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani in a show of unity to honour the Islamic Republic’s polarising pragmatist. Rafsanjani, who died on Sunday aged 82, will be buried in the mausoleum of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who led the country’s Islamic revolution in 1979 and founded the country’s system of theocratic rule.

Rafsanjani’s pragmatic policies of economic liberalisation and better relations with the West attracted fierce supporters and equally fierce critics during his life, but his funeral brought both sides together in a show of solidarity and unity.

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Popularly known as a “pillar of the Revolution”, he wielded wide influence in core decision-making bodies of Iran. In a move seen at the time as power-sharing, he played a significant role in 1989 to appoint Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to succeed Khomeini as new supreme leader of Iran.

Rafsanjani was elected as new president a few months later. However, their friendship gradually turned into rivalry as the pragmatist president sided with reformists who promoted freedoms, while Khamenei followed a conservative interpretation of the core values of the Islamic Republic.

In his condolence message, Khamenei said political differences could never “entirely break up” his nearly 60 years of friendship with Rafsanjani. Streets were filled overnight with billboards that showed a picture of the two men smiling and chatting as close friends.

“No one would be like Hashemi for me,” the billboards quoted Khamenei as saying, using Rafsanjani’s first family name. Iranians usually have two family names.

“Ayatollah Hashemi tried all his life to save the Islamic Revolution … He wanted to preserve the unity of Iran,” his son Mohsen was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA at the funeral.

An eyewitness told Reuters on the phone from Tehran that “some were chanting slogans asking political prisoners to be released, some hardliners were shouting Death to America. But they didn’t clash. Everyone were respectful.”

Khamenei said the final prayer over Rafsanjani’s body in the University of Tehran courtyard where the late president delivered many of his speeches during Friday prayers. Politicians, military commanders and religious figures from all camps stood behind him.

The president, head of parliament, head of the judiciary and senior Khamenei advisors stood in the first line at the service, while cabinet ministers and the deceased leader’s relatives filled the rows behind them.

Rafsanjani’s body, sealed in a metal coffin with his white turban on top, was then brought in procession down Revolution Street in central Tehran, where tens of thousands of people came out in cold winter weather to pay tribute.

State television channels broadcast the funeral live from early hours in the morning, highlighting the massive outpouring of public respect for the former president. Among those attending were Revolutionary Guards Commander Qassem Soleimani, leading Iranian Sunni cleric Molavi Abdolhamid, several grandsons of Khomeini and even some movie stars, showing how Rafsanjani enjoyed respect from opposing figures in Iran.

Mohamad Ali Abtahi, a former vice president and reformist cleric, said on Twitter that “it is difficult to imagine Iran without Hashemi Rafsanjani. He had different opponents in different eras, but they all believed in his greatness and the role he was playing to resolve issues.”

Rafsanjani’s death ahead of May’s presidential election was a blow to moderate president Hassan Rouhani, who allied himself with him to win the 2013 election and went on to resolve Iran’s long standoff with the West over its nuclear programme.

Rafsanjani was a member of the Assembly of Experts, the clerical body that selects the supreme leader, Iran’s most powerful figure. His absence from that debate, whenever it happens, means the chances of a pragmatist emerging as the next supreme leader are reduced.
Hundreds of thousands of Iranians gather in Tehran for the funeral of former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.