Leader Offers Condolences
TEHRAN (Press TV) -- Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has offered condolences over the death of Iranian veteran politician Seyyed Sadeq Tabatabayi.
In a message, Ayatollah Khamenei voiced condolences over the "unfortunate demise” of Tabatabyi, saying that the influential figure in the Iranian politics was one of his "old friends”.
Tabatabayi died at the age of 71 at a hospital in the German city of Dusseldorf on Saturday after years of suffering from lung cancer.
Born in the Iranian city of Qom, Tabatabayi was one of the major figures of the anti-regime movement of students in Europe in the years leading to the victory of the Islamic revolution in 1979.
Tabatabayi was a close aide to the late Imam Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Revolution, when the respected leader lived in exile in a suburb of the French capital Paris in 1978.
He was a nephew of the late Imam Musa al-Sadr, the leader of the Lebanese Shia movement in the 1970s. He also served for a short period of time as Iran’s caretaker prime minister in 1980, beside other positions including the political deputy as well as the spokesman for the prime minister in the interim cabinet formed after the victory of the Revolution.