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Iran Declares National Mourning Day Over Chairman of Expediency Council

Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi
Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi
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Iran Declares National Mourning Day Over Chairman of Expediency Council

Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi
Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi

Iran declared on Tuesday a one-day national mourning over Chairman of the Expediency Council Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, who headed Iran’s judiciary during fierce crackdowns on dissidents, journalists and activists and died on Monday at the age of 70, AFP reported.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei performed funeral prayers Wednesday in Tehran for Shahroudi.

Shahroudi was a student of Iran’s revolutionary founder Khomeini who went on to hold some of the most powerful positions in the Islamic republic.

At the time of his death, he was head of the Expediency Council and a member of the 12-man Guardian Council -- two key institutions in shaping legislation and vetting election candidates. He was also deputy head of the Assembly of Experts, which has the power to choose the successor to Khamenei.

He had not been seen in public for several months, and there were reports last year that he underwent a surgery for an unspecified type of cancer in Germany.

A German MP filed a complaint against Shahroudi during his stay, calling for him to be charged with crimes against humanity, but a judge found no grounds to hold him.

Shahroudi headed the judiciary between 1999 and 2009 – a period that saw hundreds of executions and a crackdown on activists, dissidents and the reformist media.

His tenure concluded with the mass protests over allegations of vote rigging in the 2009 presidential election, which led to thousands of arrests and allegations of severe abuse in prisons.

The prosecution in 2001 of reformist MPs – despite their parliamentary immunity – was heavily criticized by the government at that time.

Shahroudi was born in Najaf in Iraq on August 18, 1948, and he met Khomeini when the latter was exiled to Iraq in the 1960s.

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Russia Has Decided 'at Highest Level' to Remove Taliban from Terrorist List

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov shakes hands with Acting Foreign Minister of Afghanistan's Taliban movement Amir Khan Muttaqi during a meeting in Moscow, Russia, October 4, 2024. Russian Foreign Ministry/Handout via REUTERS
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov shakes hands with Acting Foreign Minister of Afghanistan's Taliban movement Amir Khan Muttaqi during a meeting in Moscow, Russia, October 4, 2024. Russian Foreign Ministry/Handout via REUTERS
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Russia Has Decided 'at Highest Level' to Remove Taliban from Terrorist List

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov shakes hands with Acting Foreign Minister of Afghanistan's Taliban movement Amir Khan Muttaqi during a meeting in Moscow, Russia, October 4, 2024. Russian Foreign Ministry/Handout via REUTERS
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov shakes hands with Acting Foreign Minister of Afghanistan's Taliban movement Amir Khan Muttaqi during a meeting in Moscow, Russia, October 4, 2024. Russian Foreign Ministry/Handout via REUTERS

Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Friday that a decision to remove the Taliban from a list of terrorist organizations had been "taken at the highest level", the state TASS news agency reported.
The decision needs to be followed up with various legal procedures in order to make it a reality, President Vladimir Putin's special representative on Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, was quoted as saying.
Putin said in July that Russia considered Afghanistan's Taliban movement an ally in the fight against terrorism.
Russia has been slowly building ties with the Taliban since it seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021 as US-led forces withdrew after 20 years of war but the movement is still officially outlawed in Russia.
No country has formally recognized the Taliban as the country's legitimate leadership.
Russia added the Taliban to its list of terrorist organizations in 2003. Removing it would be an important step by Moscow towards normalizing relations with Afghanistan.
The Taliban's acting foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said in a speech in Moscow that recent decisions by Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan to remove the former insurgents from a list of banned groups was a welcome step.
"We also appreciate the positive remarks by the high-ranking officials of the Russian Federation in this regard and hope to see more effective steps soon," he said.
In separate comments on Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow was convinced of the need to maintain "pragmatic dialogue" with the current Afghan government.
"It is obvious that it is impossible to solve problems or even discuss an Afghan settlement without Kabul," Lavrov said.
"Moscow will continue its course on developing political, trade and economic ties with Kabul," he added, speaking at a meeting in Moscow with Muttaqi and representatives of neighboring countries.
While he did not mention the Taliban by name, he praised the current Afghan leadership for its efforts to curb drug production and fight ISIS, which is outlawed in Russia.
Muttaqi said that countries in the region should cooperate against the ISIS group, which he said had established training centers outside Afghanistan.
Lavrov said the United States should return confiscated assets to Afghanistan and the West should acknowledge responsibility for the post-conflict reconstruction of the country.
Lavrov also called for an increase in humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, and said Russia would keep sending it food and essential goods.
Russia has a troubled history in Afghanistan, where the Soviet army invaded in 1979 to support a pro-Moscow government but withdrew 10 years later after sustaining heavy casualties at the hands of fighters.
Russia and its post-Soviet neighbors have suffered recurrent attacks from militant groups linked to Afghanistan - most recently in March, when 145 people were killed in an attack claimed by ISIS at a concert hall near Moscow.