Ex-Iran lawmaker who founded Hezbollah dies of coronavirus

By Syed Zafar Mehdi
TEHRAN, Iran (AA) – Former Iranian reformist lawmaker Ali-Akbar Mohtashamipour, who helped found Lebanese group Hezbollah, has died of the coronavirus.

Mohtashamipour, 75, had been living in the Iraqi city of Najaf for the past few years and was flown to Tehran recently after contracting the virus.

According to the state-run news agency IRNA, Mohtashamipour died at a hospital in northern Tehran after contracting COVID-19.

A close associate of Iran's founder Ayatollah Khomeini, Mohtashamipour played a key role in the 1979 Iranian revolution and later as one of the five founders of Hezbollah during the 1980s.

Another founder of Hezbollah and former deputy foreign minister, Hossein Sheikholislam, also died from coronavirus in March last year.

A senior reformist figure who had close liaisons with conservatives, Mohtashamipour served as Iran's interior minister in the 1980s and as an adviser to former reformist President Mohammad Khatami in the 1990s.

In early 1980s, shortly before the Iran-Iraq war, during his stint as an envoy to Syria, his right arm and ear were blown off after a parcel bomb sent to the Iranian Embassy in Damascus exploded in his hand. He blamed Israel's spy agency Mossad for the attack.

He was one of Khomeini's trusted aides who was sent on missions to Syria and Lebanon, among other regional countries in the aftermath of the 1979 revolution, which experts say was to "export the revolution".

In 2009, Mohtashimipur openly backed reformist hopeful Mir-Hossein Mousavi against the incumbent conservative Mahmoud Ahmedinejad and even supervised an election monitoring body for Mousavi, which drew flak of conservatives.

After that, he kept a low-profile. However, he continued to be seen as an important figure in regional countries where Iran has sought to exert influence over the years.

There had also been reports of him fleeing the country to Syria and later to Iraq. However, the issue remains shrouded in secrecy.

Mohtashamipour's death has been widely condoled in Iran. The country's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in a statement on Monday hailed him for his "revolutionary services and important responsibilities".