Iranian Muslim scholar who helped found Hezbollah dies of COVID

Ali Akbar Mohtashamipour formed alliances with armed groups across the Middle East in the 1970s.

Ali Akbar Mohtashamipour, a Shia Muslim scholar who as Iran’s ambassador to Syria helped found the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah and lost his right hand to a book bomb reportedly planted by Israel, died on Monday of the coronavirus. He was 74. A close ally of Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Mohtashamipour formed alliances with armed groups across the Middle East in the 1970s. After the Islamic revolution, he helped found the paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Iran and, as ambassador to Syria, brought the force into the region to help form Hezbollah.