Obituary | Shark of Persia

Obituary: Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani died on January 8th

The Iranian politician was 82

IN DEATH as in life, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani defied categorisation. He was a stalwart of a regime dubbed an exporter of terror and heresy. Yet regional arch-foes such as Bahrain and Saudi Arabia mourned his passing, as did the Great Satan itself, via a State Department press briefing. At home, embattled reformists felt they had lost their prime protector.

This article appeared in the Obituary section of the print edition under the headline “Shark of Persia”

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From the January 14th 2017 edition

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