TIME

The death of Iran’s ultimate political insider gives hard-liners an edge

Rafsanjani put Iran’s Supreme Leader into power and then spent decades fighting him

TO SAY ALI AKBAR HASHEMI RAFSANJANI INSPIRED mixed emotions is to begin to understand Iran. The power broker, who died on Jan. 8 at age 82, reflected the contradictions that define the Islamic Republic. Rafsanjani was both revolutionary and evolutionary, a reputed killer and a subtle diplomat, famously corrupt and, late

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