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. 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. Authorities have declared Tuesday a public holiday so Iranians can commemorate Rafsanjani. 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. 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. 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. 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.
Hundreds of thousands of Iranians gather in Tehran for the funeral of former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.