Iran’s Vice President Mohammad Mokhber, appointed acting president after Ebrahim Raisi’s death?

Hours after the death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash, Vice President Mohammad Mokhber has been appointed as acting president of the Islamic Republic. The 68-year-old is expected to serve as caretaker president for around 50 days before mandatory presidential elections in Iran. Raisi’s helicopter was found on Monday in northwestern Iran.

Mokhber maintains a low-key public profile. However, Mokhber has held prominent positions within the country’s power structure, particularly in its bonyads (charitable foundations). He holds a doctorate in international law. Iranian media reports suggest Mokhber was crucial in Iranian efforts to bypass Western sanctions on its oil industry.

He was born in Sept 1955 in Dezful in Iran’s southwestern Khuzestan province to a clerical family. Mokhber has served as an officer in the Revolutionary Guard’s medical corps during the 1980s Iran-Iraq war, reports suggest. He has been a member of Iran’s Expediency Council since 2022. The council advises the supreme leader, as well as settles disputes between parliament and the Guardian Council, Iran’s constitutional watchdog that also oversees the country’s elections.

Mokhber has previously worked in banking and telecommunications. He oversaw a bonyad (charitable trust) known in English as the Execution of Imam Khomeini’s Order, or EIKO, referring to the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. As the head of EIKO, Mokhber oversaw an effort to make a COVID-19 vaccine during the height of the pandemic, pledging to make tens of millions of doses. He also worked at the Mostazafan Foundation, another bonyad that’s a major conglomerate that manages the country’s mega-projects and businesses.