Mir-Hossein Mousavi

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Mir-Hossein Mousavi (میرحسین موسوی) (born 1941?) is an Iranian painter, architect and politician who was the Prime Minister of Iran from 1981 to 1989, at the time of Ali Khamenei's presidency. He was the last prime minister of Iran before the change in the constitution which removed the post of prime minister. Before that, he was the Minister of Foreign Affairs. He is currently the president of Iranian Academy of Arts, a high consultant to the President. He is also a member of the Expediency Discernment Council and the High Council of Cultural Revolution, but it is rumored that he has not been participating in their meetings for a long time.

He was considered one of possible candidates of the reformist alliance to run for the Iranian presidential election, 2005, which had led to long speculations. But he finally declined the offer of certain parties in the reformist alliance on October 12, 2004, after a meeting with President Mohammad Khatami and the two other major members of Association of Combatant Clerics, Mehdi Karroubi and Mohammad Mousavi-Khoiniha.

Mousavi had also refused to run for the 1997 elections, which caused the reformists to turn to Mohammad Khatami, who won in a landslide victory. Mousavi's wife, Zahra Rahnavard, explained in an interview that the reason for him not running in the 1997 elections has been receiving discouraging messages from the higher officials, a statement which possibly hints at the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and/or the then President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

In the early years of the Islamic Republic, Mousavi was the editor of the official newspaper of the Islamic Republic Party, the Jomhouri-e Eslami (Islamic Republic) newspaper.

Mousavi is an architectural engineer and paints occasionally. He holds a Masters degree in Architecture from Shahid Beheshti University (melli). He has rarely stated his political opinions since his leaving the office in 1988.

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During his visit in Turkey he rejected and did not accept to visit the Atatürk Mausoleum, which is not expected from Foreign diplomats and politicians.