TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s former President Akbar Hashemi 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. For decades, the Shiite Muslim politician played an outsize role in Iranian politics. The political survivor’s life spanned the trials of Iran’s modern history, from serving as a close aide to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini during the 1979 Islamic Revolution to acting as a go-between in the Iran-Contra deal. He served as Iran's president from 1989 to 1997, and has been credited with the country's recovery from a long war with neighboring Iraq in the '80s. NPR's Peter Kenyon reports that Rafsanjani enjoyed a kind of renaissance as an influential reformer late in his political career. “But we never went.”

The cleric managed to remain within Iran’s ruling theocracy after leaving office, but an attempt to return to the presidency in 2005 was dashed by the electoral victory of the more hard-line Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Rafsanjani was forced out of the post in 2011, but remained as head of the Expediency Council, an advisory body that mediates disputes between the parliament and the Guardian Council, a watchdog group controlled by hard-line clerics. "Voters instead chose the candidate most aligned with Rafsanjani's pragmatic views, Hassan Rouhani. Many Iranians saw Rafsanjani as a mentor to Rouhani, and his influence rose." Rafsanjani's death leaves President Rouhani without his "political soul mate" — in the words of The Washington Post — and leaves other moderates in the country without one of their leading lights.
Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, former President of Iran, dies at the age of 82.