Jakarta, CNN Indonesia —
Shiite scholars Iran who is also the founder of the Lebanese militant group Hizbullah, Ali Akbar Mohtashamipour died.
As quoted from Associated Press, Mohtashamipour breathed his last on Monday (7/6) due to the corona virus.
Alharhum died at the age of 74 years.
Mohtashamipour died in a hospital in Tehran after contracting the coronavirus, Iran’s news agency reported, IRNA.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei praised Mohtashamipour for his “revolutionary services.” President Hassan Rouhani said the cleric “dedicated his life to promoting the Islamic movement and the realization of the ideals of the revolution.”
Supreme Court Justice Ebrahim Raisi, who is tipped as the leading candidate for Iran’s presidential candidate, also offered his condolences to the Mohtashamipour family.
“The deceased was one of the holy fighters on the way to the liberation of Jerusalem and one of the pioneers in the war against the Zionist regime,” Raisi said.
Mohtashamipour has lived in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, Iraq, for the past 10 years following disputed elections in Iran.
He lost his right arm in a book bomb attack allegedly carried out by Israel.
A close ally of the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, in the 1970s formed alliances with Muslim militant groups in the Middle East.
After the Islamic Revolution, he helped establish the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard in Iran. The deceased briefly served as Iran’s ambassador to Syria, and brought troops to the region to help form Hezbollah.
Born in Tehran in 1947, Mohtashamipour met Khomeini in exile in Najaf after being expelled from Iran by Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
In the 1970s, he crossed the Middle East speaking to militant groups and helping to form an alliance between the Islamic Republic and the Palestine Liberation Organization while fighting Israel.
After being captured by the Iraqis, Mohtashamipour found his way to Khomeini’s exile residence outside Paris. They then returned triumphantly to Iran in the midst of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
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