Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who finally announced today that he will run in Iran's presidential election, is a dealmaker and powerbroker who has helped shape Iranian politics for a quarter of a century.
Few other Iranian politicians arouse such strong and divided opinions of respect and dislike as this pistachio farmer's son, who is widely acknowledged as the second most powerful figure in the Islamic state after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Mr Rafsanjani said he would try to regain his former post in the June 17th election, a race he is strongly tipped to win. "The return of Rafsanjani may revive the faded glory of the presidential office and serve to create a unifying force," the pro-reform Iran Daily newspaper said in a recent editorial.
A mid-ranking cleric, Rafsanjani(70) has held most of the top positions in Iran's political structure including parliament speaker, armed forces commander and president from 1989 to 1997.
Since reformist President Mohammad Khatami's landslide election win in 1997, Mr Rafsanjani has headed the Expediency Council - a powerful arbitration body with legislative powers - and has influenced policies on everything from the economy to Iran's nuclear negotiations with the West.
During a political career spanning more than half a century he has endured arrest and torture under the US-backed Shah, an assassination attempt just after the revolution, electoral humiliation in 2000 and persistent accusations of corruption and human rights abuses.
He has also been at the heart of almost every key moment in the 26-year-old Islamic republic's life, including decisions to prolong and finally end the 1980-1988 war with Iraq, as well as covert arms-for-hostages deals with Washington in the 1980s.