Iran’s first vice president, Mohammad Mokhber, is expected to assume the presidency after Ebrahim Raisi’s death in a helicopter crash as the country gears up for early elections.
The Iranian constitution stipulates that the first vice president take over “in the event of the president’s death, dismissal, resignation, absence or illness for more than two months”.
Raisi, who died on Sunday along with Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and other officials, was nearing the end of his first four-year term as president.
Mokhber’s interim appointment requires the approval of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final word in all state affairs.
Presidential elections to pick a permanent successor are to be held within 50 days, according to the constitution.
A council made up of the parliament speaker, head of the judiciary and the vice president are to be tasked with organising the national vote.
Mokhber, 68, was appointed vice president as Raisi took office in August 2021.
The vice president was born in Dezful city in the southwestern province of Khuzestan, where he held several official positions.
For years since 2007, Mokhber chaired the Execution of Imam Khomeini’s Order, a governmental organisation tasked with managing properties confiscated following the 1979 Islamic revolution.
The foundation, established in the 1980s, has over the years grown to become a major state economic conglomerate with shares in various sectors.
Iranians head to the polls for presidential elections every four years since the Islamic Republic’s first vote in 1980.
The constitution sets a two-term limit for Iranian presidents.
The position of prime minister does not exist in Iran, and the president — assisted by several vice presidents — is responsible for appointing and directing the cabinet.
About Mohammad Mokhber
Here are some key facts about Mohammad Mokhber, 68, Iran’s first vice president who became 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 organise 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.
* Mokhber was part of a team of Iranian officials who visited Moscow in October and agreed to supply surface-to-surface missiles and more drones to Russia’s military, sources told Reuters at the time. The team also included two senior officials from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and an official from the Supreme National Security Council.
* Mokhber had previously been head of Setad, an investment fund linked to the supreme leader.
* In 2010, the European Union included Mokhber on a list of individuals and entities it was sanctioning for alleged involvement in “nuclear or ballistic missile activities”. Two years later, it removed him from the list.
* In 2013, the U.S. Treasury Department added Setad and 37 companies it oversaw to a list of sanctioned entities.
* 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.
Raisi’s death was confirmed by Iran’s vice president on X, and on state television.
