IRNA � Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan in a twitter message on Tuesday condoled President Hassan Rouhani on demise of the late Chairman of the Expediency Council Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.


In the message on his Twitter page, he said Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani will be remembered by the Armenian people as a President of the neighboring country whose tenure in office was signified by the establishment of the initial interstate relations between the newly independent Armenia and Iran, which gave a new impetus to the centuries-long friendship of our two nations.

Based on the strong foundation, which was formed in those years, today we continue to expand and deepen our cooperation.

Armenian Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan also on Monday condoled Iranian ambassador to Armenia on the departure of Ayatollah Rafsanjani.

Ayatollah Rafsanjani died on January 8 (Sunday) at the age of 82 due to a heart attack in a Tehran hospital.

He was a close ally to the Father of the Islamic Revolution the late Imam Khomeini and also the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei. Rafsanjani was a veteran cleric, a pillar of the Islamic Revolution and an influential politician, who served in different positions in the post-1979 Islamic Revolution era.