Former Iranian foreign minister turned opposition figure dies

Ebrahim Yazdi, Islamic Republic’s first FM, broke with government over US embassy takeover before heading liberal party

TEHRAN, Iran — Ebrahim Yazdi, Iran’s first foreign minister after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, who later went on to become an opposition figure, has died aged 86, Iranian media reported Monday.

He died late Sunday in Izmir, Turkey, where he underwent surgery after the United States refused his request for a medical visa.

Yazdi was an old companion of Ruhollah Khomeini, the late founder of the Islamic Republic, and became foreign minister in the provisional government of Mehdi Bazargan after the revolution.

He resigned in November 1979 in protest at a group of Islamist students taking American diplomats hostage in Tehran.

The hostage crisis, which lasted 444 days, led to the severing of diplomatic ties with Washington.

One of the hostages being held at the US Embassy in Tehran is displayed to the crowd, blindfolded and with his hands bound, outside the embassy in 1979 (AP Photo/File)

Since 1995, he had headed the Freedom Movement of Iran, a small liberal party that is banned and has little influence in Iranian politics.

Yazdi was arrested several times after the re-election of hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009.

Mehdi Karroubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi, two reformist candidates in that election, claimed widespread fraud and led street protests against the results.

Thousands were arrested and dozens killed during the regime’s crackdown on the protests, known as the Green Movement.

Yazdi and his party were close to the so-called moderate faction, and he endorsed Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s bid for presidency in 2013 and this year.

His body will be repatriated to Iran for burial in the coming days, the ISNA news agency reported those close to him as saying.