By East African Gazette
Tehran
Mohammad Mokhber, has become the Interim President of the Islamic Republic of Iran after being approved by Iranian Supreme leader Khamenei.
The revelation followsunexpected announcement of the death of Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi On Monday May 20, 2024 by State media FARS News Agency,
The tragic incident happened in Dizmar forest, located near Jolfa, the Iranian City on the Borders of Azerbaijan exclave Nakhchivan, around 600 kilometers (375 miles) Northwest of the Iranian Capital Tehran
1 World Leaders mourn Iranian President
The helicopter carrying President Raisi with other officials including Hossein Amirabdollahian, Iran’s foreign minister, Malik Rahmati, governor of Iran’s East Azerbaijan Province, Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Al-Hashem, representative of the Iranian supreme leader to East Azerbaijan,Sardar Seyed Mehdi Mousavi, head of Raisi’s guard team and others suffered a hard landing on Sunday while returning from Azerbaijan
The aircraft had a “rough landing” in heavy fog Raisi 63 was from a state a visit with the Azerbaijani president to discuss an infrastructure project over the Aras River, which separates Iran and Nakhchivan
In accordance with the Iranian Constitution, Vice President Mohammad Mokhber will assume presidential powers until new elections are held within 50 days.
In a statement on Monday, the supreme leader Khamenei said that Mr. Mokhber must work with the heads of the legislature and judiciary to hold elections for a new president within 50 days.
Mokhber, 68 years became first vice president in August 2021. He is originally from Khuzestan Province in Iran’s southwest, bordering Iraq and the Persian Gulf. He was a deputy governor there, and during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s served as a member of the Revolutionary Guards medical corps.
Mokhber has long been involved in business conglomerates tied to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
With the death of President Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s first vice president, Mohammad Mokhber, becomes acting president. Mr. Mokhber is a conservative political operative with a long history of involvement in large business conglomerates closely tied to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Who is Mohammad Mokhber, Iran’s interim president?
Mokhber led the Iranian supreme leader’s multibillion-dollar charitable conglomerate for 14 years.
Mohammad Mokhber is Iran’s interim president now after late President Ebrahim Raisi and other officials were confirmed killed in a helicopter crash and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei approved his accession to the role.
The former first vice president held an extraordinary meeting with judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei and Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the parliament speaker, on Monday morning.
As per the constitution, the three must set things in motion for a new presidential election to be held within 50 days.
Mokhber will remain interim president until then. “We will follow the path of Raisi in doing the duties entrusted without any disruptions,” he was quoted as saying by state media.
First vice president
Mokhber was appointed first vice president by Raisi in August 2021, shortly after Raisi took office.
He is the seventh person to serve in that role since the revision of the constitution in 1989 – and one of the most influential.
As first vice president, Mokhber travelled across the country to inaugurate a variety of government development projects and accompanied Raisi or led delegations himself on many foreign trips. He is reported to have visited Russia, along with senior military and security officials, to discuss arms transfers.
Mokhber was on a list of individuals and entities sanctioned by the European Union in 2010 for alleged involvement in activities concerning Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes. Two years later, the bloc removed him from the list.
Unlike other countries, Iran’s first vice presidency is an appointed – not elected – position that assumed some of the powers of the prime minister after the position was abolished in 1989.
There are several appointed vice presidents serving concurrently in Iran, each taking on different aspects of executive affairs but operating mostly like a cabinet.
Mokhber’s position was the top among vice presidents.
He was selected because he had a strong connection with the office of the supreme leader, like the late president himself, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
He was also seen as a man of action with longstanding experience in managing large-scale executive affairs.
Other positions
Before his appointment to the vice presidency, Mokhber served for 14 years as head of Iran’s Setad, or the Organisation for the Execution of Imam Khomeini’s Order.
Setad is a highly powerful economic conglomerate established under Iran’s first supreme leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, to focus on charitable affairs.
It is now believed to be worth tens of billions of dollars and remains under the direct control of the Iranian supreme leader.
Setad and Mokhber were sanctioned by the United States in 2021, with the US Treasury claiming the organisation was involved in rights violations among other things, including violating “the rights of dissidents by confiscating land and property from opponents of the regime”.
Mokhber was the head of Setad during the onset of COVID-19, at a time when Iran was hit by far the worst by the pandemic in the Middle East. Nearly 150,000 people died of COVID, according to official numbers – with actual numbers believed to be much higher.
Under his watch, Setad developed COVIran Bareket, the main coronavirus vaccine manufactured by the state.
Early life
Born in Dezful in the southwestern province of Khuzestan, the 68-year-old was educated in electrical engineering and also holds a PhD in international law.
He was active in banking and communications earlier in his career, having operated as the head of the Khuzestan Telecommunications Authority and then being promoted to deputy governor of the province in the 1990s.
Before moving up to the Setad, Mokhber was a deputy at another bonyad, the powerful Mostazafan Foundation which was also founded by Supreme Leader Khomeini as a charitable foundation.
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