Influential former Iranian president hospitalized

FILE -- In this Dec. 21, 2015 file photo, former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani waves to journalists as he registers his candidacy for the elections of the Experts Assembly, in Tehran, Iran. Iranian media said Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, that Rafsanjani, who served as president from 1989 to 1997, has been hospitalized because of a heart condition. The official IRNA news agency reported that Rafsanjani was taken to a public hospital north of the capital, Tehran. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi, File) (The Associated Press)

FILE - In this Dec. 21, 2015 file photo, former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, registers his candidacy for the elections of the Experts Assembly in Tehran, Iran. Iranian state media said Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017 that influential former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has died at age 82 after having been hospitalized because of a heart condition. Rafsanjani, who served as president from 1989 to 1997, was a leading politician who often played kingmaker in the country's turbulent politics. He supported President Hassan Rouhani. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi, File) (The Associated Press)

FILE -- In this March 2, 2012 file photo, former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani casts his ballot for the parliamentary elections in front of a portrait of late Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini, at a polling station in Tehran, Iran. Iranian state media said Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017 that influential former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has died at age 82 after having been hospitalized because of a heart condition. Rafsanjani, who served as president from 1989 to 1997, was a leading politician who often played kingmaker in the country's turbulent politics. He supported President Hassan Rouhani. (AP Photo/ISNA, Ruhollah Vahdati, File) (The Associated Press)

Iranian media says an influential former president has been hospitalized because of a heart condition.

The official IRNA news agency reported Sunday that Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was taken to a public hospital north of the capital, Tehran. The semi-official ISNA news agency quoted Mohammad Hashemi, his brother, as saying that Rafsanjani was in good condition. Neither report provided further details.

Rafsanjani, who served as president from 1989 to 1997, is a leading politician who has often played kingmaker in the country's turbulent politics. He supports President Hassan Rouhani.

Rafsanjani is currently head of the Expediency Council, a body that advises Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and in March he won a seat on a clerical body that will one day decide Khamenei's successor.