With the dying of President Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s first vp, Mohammad Mokhber, turns into performing president. Mr. Mokhber is a conservative political operative with an extended historical past of involvement in massive enterprise conglomerates intently tied to Iran’s supreme chief, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
In an announcement on Monday, Mr. Khamenei mentioned that Mr. Mokhber should work with the heads of the legislature and judiciary to carry elections for a brand new president inside 50 days.
Vice presidents in Iran are sometimes low profile, working extra as gamers inside the authorities than as public figures.
“Iran’s vice presidents have historically not been contenders to succeed their bosses,” mentioned Robin Wright, a joint fellow on the U.S. Institute of Peace and the Wilson Heart in Washington. “The larger query,” she added, “is who will the regime permit to run for the workplace.”
Mr. Mokhber is round 68 years outdated and have become first vp in August 2021.
One in all Mr. Mokhber’s comparatively few high-profile appearances got here when he and three different senior Iranian officers went to Moscow in October 2022 to finish a sale of Iranian drones and ballistic missiles to Russia, to be used within the warfare in Ukraine.
Mr. Raisi selected him as vp after Mr. Mokhber held senior positions in a few of Iran’s strongest organizations, together with the Mostazafan Basis, Sina Financial institution and Setad, a conglomerate completely managed by Ayatollah Khamenei that has billions of {dollars} in belongings and was concerned — not completely efficiently — in efforts to make and distribute a Covid-19 vaccine.
All three organizations are a part of an opaque community of economic entities which can be tied to the Iranian state, though they aren’t immediately state-owned. They’re additionally related to tasks which can be priorities for the supreme chief and his inside circle.
Leily Nikounazar contributed reporting.
