Topline
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appointed the country’s first vice president, Mohammad Mokhber, as the acting president before a new election following the president’s death in a helicopter crash—elevating a longtime ally of Iranian hardliners who once ran the country’s state-related investment firm and oversaw a weapons sale to Russia.
Mokhber has served as first vice president since 2021 and traveled to Russia in his role to oversee ... [+]
Key Facts
Mokhber, 68, served as now-deceased former President Ebrahim Raisi’s first vice president since 2021—Iran’s constitution allows the president to appoint multiple deputies, and before Raisi’s death the country had 12 serving simultaneously.
From 2007 until his ascension to the vice presidency, Mokhber was the head of the Execution of Imam Khomeini's Order, also known as EIKO or Setad, an investment firm originally founded as a conglomerate to hold private properties seized after the 1979 revolution, which was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2013.
Mokhber himself was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2021 for his role in running Setad, which the Treasury Department claimed was “confiscating land and property from opponents of the regime, including political opponents, religious minorities, and exiled Iranians” and creating a “resistance economy.”
Mokhber was the former head of Sina Bank, one of Iran’s largest financial institutions, which was targeted by sanctions in 2018, and worked for the Mostazafan Foundation—a religious charitable foundation holding billions of dollars in properties.
According to the U.S. government, the foundation was formed to confiscate property from Iranian Baha’is and Jews, but has since grown into one of the largest companies in Iran and serves as a “patronage network” for Supreme Leader Khamenei.
Mokhber was also personally sanctioned by the European Union in 2010 over concerns about Iran’s nuclear program, but these sanctions were lifted two years later.
In 2022, Mokhber traveled to Russia to oversee the sale of Iranian-manufactured Shahed drones and ballistic missiles to the Russian military, Reuters reported at the time, which have since been used on the battlefield in Ukraine.
News Peg
Raisi and Iran’s foreign minister were confirmed dead Monday morning after their helicopter crashed in northwestern Iran, following an hours-long search, state media reported.
What To Watch For
According to the Iranian Constitution, Mokhber will now have 50 days to call for a new election to replace Raisi. The date of the election will be chosen by a three-person council including the Speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, the head of the judiciary and the last president’s first deputy—which was Mokhber. Supreme Leader Khamenei announced a state of mourning for Raisi on Monday, and the government has not yet indicated exactly when it plans to hold the new election. Mokhber has not commented on if he plans to run for the position.
Key Background
Unlike other hardline Iranian politicians like firebrand Mahmoud Ahmedinejad or Raisi himself, Mokhber has kept a relatively low profile before becoming first vice president in 2021. He never held an elected office in the Islamic Republic, and did not work in government until he took over as head of Setad. The U.S. described Mokhber’s massive investment fund as a “labyrinth of 37 ostensibly private businesses, many of which are front companies.” According to the Treasury Department, Setad’s purpose is to generate tens of billions of dollars through off-the-books investments for the Iranian government. This revenue is “shielded” from both the Iranian public and international regulators, the U.S. claimed when issuing sanctions against the firm in 2013. According to a Reuters investigation that same year, Setad funneled these profits directly into the pockets of Khamenei, who has held the position of Supreme Leader since Iranian Revolution leader Ruhollah Khomeini’s death in 1989. Setad has since acquired stakes in a diverse portfolio of companies, including a major bank, a brokerage firm, an insurance company, energy firms and Iran’s largest telecommunications company.
Surprising Fact
Russian President Vladimir Putin has already contacted Mokhber to offer his condolences, Russian state-owned news service TASS reported shortly after he was named acting president. “Vladimir Putin stressed that he knew Ebrahim Raisi well and thought highly of him as a reliable partner who made an invaluable personal contribution to expansion of friendly relations between Russia and Iran,” the Kremlin said in a statement.