Abbas Vaez Tabasi, representative of Ali Khamenei in the provinces of Razavi Khorasan, North Khorasan, and South Khorasan, died Friday morning at Imam Reza Hospital in Mashhad. He was one of the most influential clerics close to Iran’s ruling system.
Abbas Vaez Tabasi was transferred to Imam Reza Hospital in Mashhad on Friday evening, the 7th of Esfand, due to respiratory complications, where he received treatment. He passed away after one week. Tabasi’s transfer to the hospital occurred precisely on the day of the tenth parliamentary and leadership experts’ council elections, which had drawn media attention. Jahan News website had reported on Friday, the 7th of Esfand, that Ayatollah Vaez Tabasi was transferred to the hospital that Friday evening due to respiratory issues and passed away. However, this news was immediately denied by Iranian authorities.
One day after this cleric’s admission to the hospital, Dr. Seyyed Hassan Ghazi-Zade Hashemi, Minister of Health, Treatment, and Medical Education, visited Vaez Tabasi at Mashhad Hospital. IRNA reported the health minister’s statement: “His conditions and physical situation are not good and he is in a coma, but the medical team has made all efforts.”
Iranian newspapers reported on election day that Mr. Vaez Tabasi participated in voting while in a wheelchair.
A summary of Vaez Tabasi’s biography: From High School to Seminary
Vaez Tabasi was born in 1935 into a religious family in Mashhad. He lost his father at age one and spent his childhood under his mother’s guardianship. According to reports in Iranian media, this cleric had been interested in religious seminaries since childhood and adolescence and participated in religious gatherings of religious scholars.
Despite these interests, “due to circumstances and necessities of the time,” he pursued primary and secondary education. At age 16, Vaez Tabasi continued his religious studies under religious scholars such as Adib Nishaburi, Hajj Seyyed Ahmad Modares Yazdi, Hajj Sheikh Mojtaba Qazvin, and Milani.
Vaez Tabasi’s Political Activities
IRNA, in describing this cleric’s political history, writes that “he expressed his anger and hatred with deep disdain he felt toward the Pahlavi regime in various forms.” Vaez Tabasi was banned from the pulpit and imprisoned due to his speeches. After the February 1979 revolution, he was appointed as Ayatollah Khomeini’s representative in Greater Khorasan and custodian of Imam Reza Shrine, and after Khomeini’s death, this appointment was confirmed by Khamenei. Abbas Vaez Tabasi also maintained friendly and close relations with Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.
Ayatollah Vaez Tabasi also held the position of head of Khorasan Seminary. Moreover, he was a member of institutions such as the Expediency Discernment Council and the third session of the Leadership Experts’ Council.
According to Tasnim News Agency, Vaez Tabasi taught courses in logic, principles, landmarks, ordinances, epistles, and sufficiency for approximately 30 years.
Ayatollah Abbas Vaez Tabasi passed away at 2 a.m. on Friday, the 14th of Esfand, at the age of 80, after one week of treatment at Imam Reza Hospital in Mashhad.
