Tasnim – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani offered his deep condolences over the demise of the Iraqi Kurdish leader and former president, Jalal Talabani, saying he played a prominent role in strengthening the Arab country’s unity and national solidarity.

In a message issued on Wednesday, President Rouhani sympathized with the Iraqi people and government as well as the bereaved family of the late secretary-general of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).

“The late Jalal Talabani was a prominent figure and politician who spent years of his… life struggling against the tyranny, despotism and totalitarianism of the former Iraqi Ba'ath regime,” he said.

The Iranian president further said Talibani played a very important role in preserving Iraq’s national solidarity and unity and promoting the regional and international status of Iraq.

The Kurdish leader and former president of Iraq died at the age of 84 on Tuesday.

Talabani stepped down as president in 2014, after a long period of treatment following a stroke in 2012.

Talabani was born near Erbil in 1933. He was the first non-Arab president of Iraq, elected in 2005, two years after the US-led invasion against the Arab country in 2003.