“We lost a great man among the elderly figures of the Islamic Ummah (community),” Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah said in a message, according to the Arabic-language al-Ahed news website.

Over the past 34 years, Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani had been a great supporter and backer of the (anti-Israeli) resistance, he noted.

The Hezbollah leader further emphasized that the late cleric believed in the Palestinian issue and resistance against the Zionist regime of Israel.

Ayatollah Rafsanjani passed away at a hospital in northern Tehran on Sunday at the age of 82 due to a heart condition.

He was among the main aides to the late founder of the Islamic Republic, Imam Khomeini.

He played an influential role both during the anti-Shah struggles before the victory of the Islamic Revolution and afterwards through various stages of the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Rafsanjani was also a key figure during the eight years of Iraq’s imposed war on Iran (1980-88), serving as substitute to commander-in-chief of the armed forces.