Who is Mohammad Mokhber? Iran’s interim president

With the surprise death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash on Sunday, Iran‘s first vice president has stepped into the vacant role – at least for now.

As acting president under the Islamic Republic’s constitution, Mohammad Mokhber, 68, will form a three person council – along with the speaker of parliament and the head of the judiciary – that will organise a new presidential election.

While it remains unclear in the long run who will replace Raisi – a hard-line protégé of the country’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei – the constitution stipulates that the election must be held within 50 days of the president’s death.

Born on September 1, 1955, Mokhber has previously been sanctioned by the west for ‘nuclear activities’ and also agreed to supply Russia with a deadly arsenal of drones to press its continued invasion of Ukraine.

Like Raisi, Mokhber is seen as close to Khamenei who has the last say in all matters of state and who today tasked Mokhber with organising the elections.

He became first vice president in 2021 when Raisi was elected president after a carefully orchestrated election, with Khamenei getting his desired outcome.

But with Raisi’s death, any plan that may have involved him succeeding Khamenei as Iran’s supreme leader will now have to be torn up and redrawn.

Mokhber is likely to be among the favoured candidates to fill the empty role.

In addition to now being the acting president of Iran, the 68-year-old is also a member of the Expediency Discernment Council – an administrative assembly appointed by Khamenei, first created in 1988.

While it was first set up to resolve conflicts between different branches within the Iranian government, its true power comes from its advisory role to the Supreme Leader.

In addition, prior to becoming Iran’s Vice President, Mokhber served as the head of the Execution of Imam Khomeini’s Order (Setad) – a state-owned investment fund under the direct control of the Supreme Leader.

It was created from thousands of properties that were confiscated in the aftermath of the 1979 Islamic Revolution 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 revolution and channel the bulk of the proceeds to charity. 

However, a Reuters investigation found that it built ‘its empire on the systematic seizure of thousands of properties belonging to ordinary Iranians’.

Initially, Ruhollah ordered for three aides to distribute the property to charity. However, under Khamenei, the organisation has been acquiring property for itself – and grown into a major economic power in Iran.

The actions of the new incumbent president has got him noticed abroad. 

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 US Treasury Department added Setad and 37 companies it oversaw to a list of sanctioned entities. 

Mokhber was also 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 news agency at the time.

The team also included two senior officials from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and an official from the Supreme National Security Council.

The drones and extra missiles have wreaked havoc across Ukraine and has allowed Russia to gain an advantage in Vladimir Putin’s on-going war.

Following Mr Raisi’s death, the only other person so far suggested has been Mojtaba Khameini, the 55-year-old son of the Supreme Leader. 

However, some have raised concerns over the position being taken only for the third time since 1979 by a family member, particularly after the Islamic Revolution overthrew the hereditary Pahlavi monarchy of the shah. 

Raisi was killed on Sunday after a helicopter carrying him and other officials crashed in the mountainous northwest reaches of Iran.

He was confirmed dead by Iranian media today along with Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian; Governor of Eastern Azerbaijan province Malek Rahmati, Tabriz’s Friday prayer Imam Mohammad Ali Alehashem as well as a pilot, copilot, crew chief, head of security and another bodyguard.

Grainy footage released by the IRNA early this morning showed what the state news agency described as the crash site. Soldiers speaking in the local Azeri language said: ‘There it is, we found it.’

An Iranian official later said the search teams who located the wreckage found ‘no sign of life’. The nation’s government held an ‘urgent meeting’ Monday, with Raisi’s chair left vacant and covered in a black sash.

Mokhber steps into the role of president at a time when the Middle East remains unsettled by the Israel-Hamas war during which Mr Raisi, under Khamenei, launched an unprecedented drone-and-missile attack on Israel last month.

Under Mr Raisi, Iran enriched uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels, further escalating tensions with the West as Tehran also supplied bomb-carrying drones to Russia for its war in Ukraine and armed militia groups across the region.

Meanwhile, Iran has faced years of mass protests against its Shiite theocracy over its ailing economy and women’s rights – making the moment that much more sensitive for Tehran and the future of the country.

Iran has armed Russia in its war on Ukraine, as well as launched a massive drone-and-missile attack on Israel amid its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

It also has continued arming proxy groups in the Middle East, like Yemen’s Houthi rebels and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

Mass protests in the country have raged for years.

The most recent involved the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini, a woman who had been earlier detained over allegedly not wearing a hijab, or headscarf, to the liking of authorities.

The months-long security crackdown that followed the demonstrations killed more than 500 people and saw more than 22,000 detained.

In March, a United Nations investigative panel found that Iran was responsible for the ‘physical violence’ that led to Ms Amini’s death.