Ultraconservative Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, close to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, died in Tehran at the age of 85 on Friday, official Iranian agency Irna reported.
He had been in a hospital in the capital for several days because of a "digestive disease," Irna said, referring to a statement released by the office of the deceased.
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Until his death, he was head of Imam Khomeini's Research and Education Institute and a member of the Assembly of Experts, a college responsible for appointing, supervising and possibly dismissing the Supreme Leader.
Entered this college, composed mainly of religious in 1991, he lost his seat in the 2016 elections marked by a push from reformers and moderates but had won it back two years later in a partial ballot. .
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Speaker of Parliament Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf offered their condolences in separate statements to his family, the Iranian nation and the Supreme Leader.
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Former of the Iranian Revolution and close to Ali Khamenei, Mesbah Yazdi was a fervent supporter of the very conservative former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
When the latter came to power in 2005, Mesbah Yazdi declared that this victory was a "miracle" and a gift to the people from the Mahdi - the twelfth Imam of the Shiites, hidden during his lifetime, and who must return to the end of time-- Irna said.
But he had changed his posture during the president's second term, accusing him of being one of the "deviationists (who) want to undermine the system with money and propaganda" when the head of state openly contested the supreme guide.
Mesbah Yazdi also, according to the Isna agency, affirmed in 2014 that the Iranian population “does not deserve a leader” such as Ayatollah Khamenei whose governance was a “blessing” for the Islamic Republic.