Ebrahim Yazdi, foreign minister in Iran’s interim government after the 1979 Islamic Revolution who later became an opposition figure, died of cancer Aug. 27 in the Turkish city of Izmir. He was 86.

In 2016, with his health deteriorating, he had sought to undergo surgery in the United States, but after being denied a visa, settled for an operation and treatment in Turkey.

Decades before the revolution, Yazdi had been a supporter of Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh, who was ousted during a coup orchestrated by the United States in 1953. He later studied in the United States and formed part of the Freedom Movement of Iran opposed to the Shah. In 1965, Yazdi became the leader of the Special Organization for Alliance and Action and established guerrilla training bases in Egypt and Lebanon.

Yazdi was one of the figures closest to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Republic, having joined him when the ayatollah went into exile in Neauphle-le-Chateau, France. The shah had banished Khomeini to Iraq, which subsequently asked him to leave the country. After the revolution, Yazdi was appointed deputy prime minister, under Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan, and was then named foreign minister.