Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani

Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was born on August 25, 1934, in Bahreman, a village in Kerman Province, Iran. He studied Islamic law in Qom under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and became one of Khomeini's closest political disciples, playing an active role in the revolutionary movement. He died on January 8, 2017, of a heart attack while swimming in his villa in Tehran, aged 82.¹

Revolutionary Career

Rafsanjani was arrested multiple times by the SAVAK under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and maintained clandestine connections to the revolutionary network throughout the 1970s. Following the Iranian Revolution of February 1979, he became one of the most powerful figures in the new Islamic Republic, serving on the Revolutionary Council and later as Speaker of the Majlis (Parliament) from 1980 to 1989 - a period that encompassed the entire Iran-Iraq War and the Iran-Contra affair.

Rafsanjani was known as "the man with the key" in Iranian factional politics, representing the pragmatic wing of the Islamic Republic willing to engage in arms transactions with the West despite ideological opposition. He is consistently identified by investigators and participants in the Iran-Contra Affair as the senior Iranian official who managed the arms-for-hostages channel.²

Iran-Contra Role

Rafsanjani's political role in the Iran-Contra arms-for-hostages transactions is documented in the Lawrence Walsh Report, the Tower Commission, and congressional testimony. Iranian officials connected to Rafsanjani's parliamentary office were among the interlocutors in the negotiations conducted through intermediaries including Manucher Ghorbanifar, Adnan Khashoggi, David Kimche, and Oliver North.

On November 4, 1986, Rafsanjani publicly disclosed - in a speech to the Iranian parliament - the existence of the secret American arms deliveries to Iran, citing the visits of Robert McFarlane and Oliver North to Tehran in May 1986 carrying a Bible signed by President Ronald Reagan and a key-shaped cake symbolizing the hoped-for opening to Iran. Rafsanjani's disclosure, apparently motivated by factional politics within the Islamic Republic, broke the story that became the Iran-Contra scandal in the United States. The disclosure in the Lebanese magazine Al-Shiraa three days earlier had been the immediate trigger, but Rafsanjani's parliamentary statement confirmed the transactions publicly.²

October Surprise Allegations

Rafsanjani is implicated in the October Surprise allegations by multiple accounts. Ari Ben-Menashe and others identified Rafsanjani or his representatives as participating in the claimed Paris meetings of October 1980 at which Reagan campaign representatives allegedly negotiated a delay in the release of American hostages. Rafsanjani denied any such meetings. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee 1992 investigation found insufficient evidence to confirm the October Surprise conspiracy but noted that Rafsanjani's pragmatic relationship with Western interlocutors made such contacts plausible.¹

Presidency and Later Career

Rafsanjani served as President of Iran from August 1989 to August 1997, following Khomeini's death in June 1989. His presidency was characterized by post-war reconstruction and a more pragmatic economic approach. He continued to serve in senior positions, including the Expediency Council of which he was chairman from 1989 until his death. In 1994, Argentine investigators implicated Iranian officials including Rafsanjani in the bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires; Interpol issued a notice for his arrest in connection with the attack.¹