Tehran, August 27: The leader of Iraq’s largest Shiite party, Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, died on Wednesday in a Tehran hospital after a battle with lung cancer, five months before key parliamentary elections in Iraq.
Hakim — a cleric who had fought the Iraqi regime of executed dictator Saddam Hussein — was praised by both political leaders in both Iraq and Iran.
“He died a few minutes ago after battling cancer for 28 months,” his son Mohsen Hakim told AFP. Iranian state television quoted a doctor as saying he died at 1010 GMT.
“He was a leader and had special characteristics which made him a favourite of the people,” added son Ammar Hakim, who was with his brother at their father’s bedside when he died.
Hakim, who was 60, is due to be buried in the Iraqi Shiite shrine city of Najaf.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called Hakim’s death “a great loss for the Iraqi people,” and paid particular tribute to the family, describing them as “revolutionaries,” the official IRNA news agency reported.
Iraq’s Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki also paid tribute to Hakim, saying that his death came at a critical stage for the country.
The US ambassador in Iraq Christopher Hill and top commander General Ray Odierno said in a joint statement that Hakim “demonstrated courage and fortitude, contributing to the building of a new Iraq.”
Iran’s former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani expressed “sadness” and said: “He stood firm in the path of preserving Iraq’s independence and integrity,” IRNA reported.
In 1982 Hakim helped to establish an opposition movement in exile in Iran to battle Saddam’s Sunni-dominated regime, and returned to Iraq after the US-led invasion of 2003.
His Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC) swept Shiite areas in the first provincial elections after the invasion, but in new elections this January the party suffered major losses to Maliki’s rival list.
“We have known Hakim for his knowledge, patience and struggle against the regime of dictatorship” of Saddam, Maliki said in a statement.
“Hakim, may his soul rest in peace, was a brother and strong supporter during the struggle against the former regime and a cornerstone in the process of building a new Iraq.
“His passing at this critical stage… is a great loss for Iraq.”
Mohsen Hakim told Iran’s Fars news agency that his father’s body “will be transferred to Najaf and the details of the mourning ceremony will be announced in due course.”
Iran’s ISNA news agency said mourners will hold a funeral procession on Thursday morning from Vali Asr Square in central Tehran to the Iraqi embassy.
A heavy smoker, Hakim was admitted to hospital on Saturday following complications.
“The advanced stage of cancer had damaged his liver, brain and bones and because of that he died,” said a doctor at the Masih Daneshvari hospital.
Hakim had been in Tehran for treatment for more than four months and also visited the United States in the past to consult lung cancer specialists.
A scion of one of the traditional leading families among Iraq’s Shiite majority, Hakim took over the leadership of his party in August 2003 after his brother Ayatollah Mohammed Baqr al-Hakim was assassinated in Najaf.
Their father, Grand Ayatollah Mohsen al-Hakim, was one of Shiite Islam’s top spiritual leaders between 1955 and 1970.
But the family has had to contend not only with the rising influence among poorer Shiites of the radical movement of anti-US cleric Moqtada al-Sadr but also with Maliki’s increasing power.
Hakim’s death came just days after Maliki confirmed he was breaking ranks with the SIIC alongside which he fought the last parliamentary elections in 2005. Maliki will now go it alone in January’s polls.
The decision leaves the SIIC facing an uphill struggle to retain its power at the political centre, contesting the elections with its remaining Shiite allies in a new National Iraqi Alliance.
Asked whether he planned to assume the party leadership from his father, Ammar Hakim told AFP: “That is something for the central council of SIIC to decide. It will meet and decide on this.
“I have no intention of nominating myself, but if I am asked to, then I will accept the council’s decision.”
–Agencies