The Imam Khomeini Educational and Research Institute, headed by Mesbah Yazdi, said he had been hospitalized in recent days with a disease of the digestive system.
The prominent cleric played a major role in the 1979 uprising that overthrew the Western-backed Shah of Iran, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, according to state-run Iran TV.
Mesbah Yazdi was seen as a tough and anti-Westerner in general, including anti-American positions. A outspoken critic of a liberal press, he was known to have ratified repressions against internal opposition, feminism, and gender equality.
According to regional experts, he was a spiritual mentor to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the former Iranian president who served from 2005 to 2013.
According to Press TV, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani offered his condolences for the death of Mesbah Yazdi, who reported that Mesbah Yazdi was 85 years old.
Iran’s semi-official Mehr said Mesbah Yazdi was close to the country’s top leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Mesbah Yazdi was a member of the Assembly of Experts (the body in charge of choosing and overseeing the performance of Iran’s supreme leader) and the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, Press TV reported.