Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad offered his condolences for Lebanese Shiite cleric Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah's passing, the official news agency IRNA reported.
In a message to Lebanese President Michel Sleiman, Ahmadinejad declared: "The brilliant and valuable service of that honourable cleric for national unity and (his) perseverance with the resistance will live on in the history of Lebanon."
Grand Ayatollah Fadlallah, a former spiritual mentor of the Shiite militant group Hezbollah and branded a "terrorist" by Washington, died in hospital on Sunday aged 75, officials said.
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A fiery anti-US and anti-Israeli critic, he died in a Beirut hospital where he was admitted on Friday for internal bleeding.
"He was a merciful father and a wise guide... who taught us to support dialogue, reject injustice and resist (Israeli) occupation," Hezbollah supremo Hassan Nasrallah said in a statement.
In the 1980s, the US media alleged Fadlallah was behind the taking of American hostages by Iranian-backed radical Islamic groups. Other reports suggested he was a mediator but his real role remained elusive.
