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Iran’s Supreme Leader approves Mokhber as interim president; but who is Mohammad Mokhber?

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Staff Reporter

2 years ago

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei announced five days of public mourning for President Ebrahim Raisi following his death in a helicopter crash and confirmed First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber as interim head of the country’s executive branch.

Iran now has a maximum period of 50 days before a presidential election must be held to choose Raisi’s successor.

“I announce five days of public mourning and offer my condolences to the dear people of Iran,” Khamenei said in a statement carried by the official news agency IRNA.

“… Mokhber will manage the executive branch and is obliged to arrange with the heads of the legislative and judicial branches to elect a new president within a maximum of 50 days,” he said.

Read More: Iranian President Raisi, Foreign Minister found dead in helicopter crash

Who is Mohammad Mokhber?

Here are some key facts about Mohammad Mokhber, 68, Iran’s first vice president who, based on the country’s constitution, is expected to become interim president following the death of Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash.

* As interim president, Mokhber is part of a three-person council, along with the speaker of parliament and the head of the judiciary, that will organize a new presidential election within 50 days of the president’s death.

* Born on Sept. 1, 1955, Mokhber, like Raisi, is seen as close to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who has the last say in all matters of state. Mokhber became first vice president in 2021 when Raisi was elected president.

* According to sources, Mokhber was among a group of Iranian officials who visited Moscow in October and decided to give the Russian military additional drones and surface-to-surface missiles. Two senior Revolutionary Guards of Iran officials and a representative from the Supreme National Security Council were also on the team.

* Before this, Mokhber oversaw Setad, an investment fund connected to the supreme leader.

* In 2010, Mokhber was placed on a list of people and organizations that the European Union was sanctioning due to accusations that he was involved in “nuclear or ballistic missile activities”. It took two years for it to take him off the list.

* Setad and the 37 companies it supervised were added to the US Treasury Department’s list of sanctioned organizations in 2013.

* Setad, whose full name is Setad Ejraiye Farmane Hazrate Emam, or the Headquarters for Executing the Order of the Imam, was set up under an order issued by the founder of the Islamic Republic, Khamenei’s predecessor, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. It ordered aides to sell and manage properties supposedly abandoned in the chaotic years after the 1979 Islamic Revolution and channel the bulk of the proceeds to charity.

Staff Reporter