Hizbullah Mourns Iranian Cleric who Helped Found It

Hizbullah on Monday mourned Iranian Shiite cleric Ali Akbar Mohtashamipour, who as Iran's ambassador to Syria had helped found the Iran-backed Lebanese armed group in the eighties of last century.

In a statement, Hizbullah extended its condolences, praising Mohtashamipour for his role "in the service of the (Iranian) revolution" and in providing all forms of support toward the launching of the Islamic resistance in Lebanon and the Palestinian cause.

"The bloody wounds on his hands, face and chest as a result of the assassination attempt are evidence of his great jihadi position, particularly at that stage of the conflict with the Zionist enemy," the statement said.

Mohtashamipour died Monday of the coronavirus. He was 74.

A close ally of Iran's late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Mohtashamipour in the 1970s formed alliances with Muslim militant groups across the Mideast. After the Islamic Revolution, he helped found the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard in Iran and as ambassador to Syria brought the force into the region to help form Hizbullah.

In his later years, he slowly joined the cause of reformists in Iran, hoping to change the Islamic Republic's theocracy from the inside. He backed the opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi in Iran's Green Movement protests that followed the disputed 2009 re-election of then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.