Iran’s constitution mandates that in the event of the death of the president, the first vice president assumes, with the approval of the supreme leader, the powers and functions of the president.
First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber will take over the role of the fallen president, after approval by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Officials said earlier that Mokhber was on his way to the area where the president’s helicopter crashed. Few see Mokhber, a banker and former deputy governor of Khuzestan province, as presidential material.
A new president should be elected within 50 days, giving the supreme leader and his entourage relatively little time to choose someone who will not only become president at such a critical time, but also be in a strong position to succeed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei himself.
In addition, the constitution mandates that the three leaders of the branches of government, the vice president, the speaker of parliament and the head of the judiciary, must organize an election to choose a new president within 50 days after the vice president assumes the role of acting president.
The immediate challenge of any new leader would be to control not only internal dissent, but factional demands within the country to take a tougher stance toward the West and draw closer to Russia and China.
Born on September 1, 1955, Mohammed Mokhber, like Raisi, is considered close to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who has the final say in all state matters. Mokhber became first vice president in 2021 when Raisi was elected president.
Mokhber was part of a team of Iranian officials who visited Moscow in October and agreed to supply surface-to-surface missiles and multiple drones to the Russian military, sources told Reuters at the time. The team also included two senior officials from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and an official from the Supreme National Security Council.
Also, he previously headed Setad, an investment fund linked to the Supreme Leader. In 2010, the European Union included Mokhber on a list of individuals and entities it sanctioned for alleged involvement in “nuclear or ballistic missile activities.” Two years later, she removed him from the list.
In 2013, the US Treasury Department added Setad and the 37 companies it monitored to the list of sanctioned entities.
The Setad, whose full name is Setad Ejraiye Farmane Hazrate Emam, or Headquarters for the Execution of the Order of the Imam, was established by order of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Khamenei’s predecessor, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. He ordered aides to sell and manage properties allegedly abandoned in the chaotic years after the 1979 Islamic Revolution and to channel most of the proceeds to charity, Klix.ba reports.
