Shahram Rafizadeh

Ayatollah Mohammad Reza Tavassoli, a former director of ayatollah Khomeini’s office, ‎died suddenly of a heart attack during an impassioned speech at an Expediency Council ‎meeting lashing out at insults by Ahmadinejad’s supporters against Hassan Khomeini, the ‎grandson of the founder of the Islamic republic, ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.‎

With Ayatollah Tavassoli’s passing, the controversy over allegations made by the Nosazi ‎‎(Restoration) website – affiliated with the Ahmadinejad administration has entered a new ‎stage.‎

Death during Protest‎

In a statement published to mark the passing of ayatollah Tavassoli, Seyyed Hassan ‎Khomeini, ayatollah Khomeini’s grandson who has been under attack from pro-‎government media, wrote: “ayatollah Tavassoli died defending the Imam and the path of ‎ayatollah Khomeini… His life and death was spent defending the Imam and the path of ‎the Imam in complete integrity and responsibility.” ‎

‎“In my opinion, ayatollah Tavassoli did not simply pass away, but he became a martyr,” ‎said Mohammad Hashemi, a member of the Expediency Council which is under the ‎leadership of ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani. According to Mohammad Hashemi, ‎‎“yesterday morning, when ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani was about to announce the ‎official start of the session, the late ayatollah Tavassoli lifted his hand and said that he ‎intends to say a few words.” ‎

Hashemi continued, “ayatollah Tavassoli began his speech criticizing the recent insults ‎directed at the family of ayatollah Khomeini, specially Hajj Seyyed Hassan Khomeini ‎‎(the founder’s grand-child), and read a letter written by the Imam in 1361 [1984]. In a ‎paragraph of that letter, the Imam had predicted that after his death, a group of ‎fundamentalist and holier-than-thou pretenders will insult and confront the Imam’s ‎children, family and comrades.” ‎

According to Mohammad Hashemi, after reading ayatollah Khoemini’s letter, ayatollah ‎Tavassoli continued his remarks, noting, “Seyyed Hassan Khomeini is the head of the ‎foundation to publish and propagate Imam’s thoughts, and if he cannot state Imam’s ‎viewpoints, then who can?”‎

Mohammad Hashemi added that ayatollah Tavassoli “was about to burst into tears as he ‎read each sentence, and cried at some points, and was so shaken that he spoke in ‎interruptions, until he fell from his chair. Immediately Dr. Ali Akbar Velayati (the ‎supreme leader’s foreign relations advisor), who was also at the meeting, came to his ‎side. Hours later, those who had gone to the hospital with him, gave the news that he had ‎passed away.” ‎

Rafsanjani’s Reaction to Attacks on Hassan Khomeini

News of ayatollah Tavassoli’s death was published a day after ayatollah Hashemi ‎Rafsanjani had lashed out, during his Friday prayer speech, at those who had insulted ‎Seyyed Hassan Khomeini. Rafsanjani said, “I don’t know how offensive Seyyed Hassan ‎Khomeini remarks that the military should not intervene in politics was, that we have ‎seen so much anger toward it.” ‎

With ayatollah Tavassoli’s death, the Islamic Republic lost a reservoir of more than three ‎decades of secrets. Prior to his death, ayatollah Tavassoli had warned several times of ‎the empowerment of a movement that threatened to “alter the ideals of the Imam and the ‎history of the Revolution.” ‎