Iran’s acting President Mohammad Mokhber addresses during the opening ceremony of a new parliament term, in Tehran, Iran, on May 27, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

Iran’s acting President Mohammad Mokhber addressed the country’s new parliament on May 27 in his first public speech since last week’s helicopter crash that killed his predecessor and seven others.

His speech comes as Iran prepares for a Presidential election to replace the late Ebrahim Raisi in just a month, a vote that could see the previously behind-the-scenes bureaucrat potentially run alongside others. Meanwhile, Iran’s new hard-line parliament is expected to select its new speaker Tuesday.

Also read: How will Iran President’s death impact the region? | Explained

In his remarks, Mr. Mokhber praised Raisi’s time in office, noting that Iran’s crude oil production— a key source of hard currency for the country — climbed to more than 3.6 million barrels a day. That comes after Oil Minister Javad Owji said Sunday that Iran was now exporting around 2 million barrels a day, despite Western sanctions targeting the Islamic Republic.

Mr. Mokhber also asserted that the country’s economy remained stable under Raisi when Iran took military actions in Iraq, Israel and Pakistan in recent months.

“Three countries were hit. We hit Israel, people find that figures and indexes are the same in the morning when they wake up, price of hard currency is the same, inflation is the same, liquidity is the same and the market is full of people’s needs,” Mokhber claimed. “This strength, this settlement and this power is not a usual thing, they all were because of guidance by the supreme leader and the sincere efforts of Ayatollah Raisi.”

The Iranian rial has tumbled from a rate of 32,000 rials to $1 at the time of Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. Today, it stands around 580,000 to $1 in the wake of the U.S.’ unilateral withdrawal from the accord and a series of attacks on shipping in the Mideast, first attributed to Iran and later involving Yemen’s Houthi rebels as Israel’s war against Hamas on the Gaza Strip began over seven months ago.

On May 20, rescuers recovered the bodies of Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and others in a mountainous region in northwestern Iran following a fatal helicopter crash.

Iran will hold presidential elections on June 28 to replace Raisi. On Thursday, a five-day registration period for candidates will open. Analysts have suggested that Mokhber could be one of those to register.

Meanwhile, Monday marked the first day for Iran’s newly elected parliament, following a March election that saw the country’s lowest turnout since its 1979 Islamic Revolution. Of those elected to the 290-seat body, hard-liners hold over 230 seats, according to an Associated Press survey.

Iran’s parliament plays a secondary role in governing the country, though it can intensify pressure on a presidential administration when deciding on the annual budget and other important bills. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 85, has the final say in all important state matters.

Iranian First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber. Iran’s supreme leader appointed Mr. Mokhber as country’s acting president on May 20, 2024, after a helicopter crash killed President Ebrahim Raisi.
| Photo Credit: AP

Iran’s first Vice President Mohammad Mokhber was appointed as acting President of the Islamic Republic on May 20 after the death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash in the country’s northwest.

Mr. Mokhber, 68, largely has been in the shadows compared to other politicians in Iran’s Shia theocracy. Raisi’s death under the constitution thrust Mr. Mokhber into public view. He is expected to serve as caretaker President for some 50 days before mandatory presidential elections in Iran.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made the announcement of Mr. Mokhber’s appointment in a condolence message he shared for Raisi’s death in the crash on May 19. The helicopter was found on May 20 in northwestern Iran.

Despite his low-key public profile, Mr. Mokhber has held prominent positions with in the country’s power structure, particularly in its bonyads, or charitable foundations. Those groups were fuelled by donations or assets seized after Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, particularly those previously associated with Iran’s shah or those in his government.

Iran helicopter crash LIVE Updates

Mr. Mokhber oversaw a bonyad known in English as the Execution of Imam Khomeini’s Order, or EIKO, referring to the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

The U.S. Treasury said the organization oversaw billions of dollars in assets as “a business juggernaut under the direct supervision of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei that has a stake in nearly every sector of the Iranian economy, including energy, telecommunications, and financial services.”

“EIKO has systematically violated the rights of dissidents by confiscating land and property from opponents of the regime, including political opponents, religious minorities, and exiled Iranians,” the Treasury said in 2021 in sanctioning Mokhber. The European Union also had sanctioned Mokhber for a time with others over concerns then about Iran’s nuclear program.

As the head of EIKO, Mr. Mokhber oversaw an effort to make a COVID-19 vaccine during the height of the pandemic, pledging to make tens of millions of doses. Only a fraction of that ever made it to the public, without explanation.

Mr. Mokhber previously worked in banking and telecommunications. He also worked at the Mostazafan Foundation, another bonyad that’s a major conglomerate that manages the country’s mega-projects and businesses. While there, he found himself entangled in a bitter legal dispute between mobile phone service providers Turkcell and South Africa’s MTN over potentially entering the Iranian market.

MTN ended up entering Iran. A Turkcell filing alleged Mokhber sought MTN’s help in securing “certain defense equipment” in exchange for potentially working with it as opposed to Turkcell.

Mr. Mokhber used “improper influence up to and including negotiating with and on behalf of the Supreme Leader in MTN’s favor,” Turkcell later alleged in a legal filing. An MTN report later said there were no arms transfers, though it acknowledge Mokhber was a player in Iran’s decision to go with MTN.

Iranian media reports suggest Mr. Mokhber, who holds a doctorate in international law, was crucial in Iranian efforts to bypass Western sanctions on its oil industry.

Mr. Mokhber has been a member of Iran’s Expediency Council since 2022, which 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.

Mr. Mokhber was born Sept. 1, 1955, in Dezful in Iran’s southwestern Khuzestan province to a clerical family. He served as an officer in the Revolutionary Guard’s medical corps during the 1980s Iran-Iraq war, according to the pressure group United Against Nuclear Iran.

“Mokhber used the vast wealth accumulated by EIKO — at the expense of the Iranian people—to reward regime insiders like himself,” UANI said. “Managing the patronage network endeared him to the supreme leader, but at a cost.”

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi speaks during a commemoration for the late Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a U.S drone attack in 2020 in Iraq, at the Imam Khomeini grand mosque, Jan. 3, 2024, in Tehran, Iran. Raisi, the country’s Foreign Minister and others have been found dead at the site of a helicopter crash after an hourslong search through a foggy, mountainous region of the country’s northwest, state media reported Monday, May 20, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi was killed in a helicopter crash, an Iranian official and Mehr news agency reported on Monday. Below is a brief outline of what Iran’s constitution says happens when a President is incapacitated or dies in office:

Also Read: Iran helicopter crash LIVE Updates

• If a President dies in office, article 131 of the Islamic Republic’s constitution says that the first Vice President — who is Mohammad Mokhber — takes over, with the confirmation of the supreme leader, who has the final say in all matters of State in Iran.
• A council consisting of the first Vice President, the Speaker of Parliament and the Head of the Judiciary must arrange an election for a new President within a maximum period of 50 days.

Mr. Raisi was elected President in 2021 and, under the usual timetable, a presidential election had been due to take place in 2025. Under constitutional rules, it can now be expected to take place by early July.

Who is Mohammad Mokhber?

Here are some key facts about Mohammad Mokhber, 68, Iran’s first Vice President who became interim President on the death of Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash.

• Born on Sept. 1, 1955, Mr. Mokhber, like Mr. Raisi, is seen as close to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who has the last say in all matters of state. Mr. Mokhber became first Vice President in 2021 when Mr. Raisi was elected President.
• Mr. Mokhber was part of a team of Iranian officials who visited Moscow in October and agreed to supply surface-to-surface missiles and more drones to Russia’s military, sources told Reuters at the time. The team also included two senior officials from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and an official from the Supreme National Security Council.
• Mr. Mokhber had previously been head of Setad, an investment fund linked to the Supreme Leader.
• In 2010, the European Union included Mr. Mokhber on a list of individuals and entities it was sanctioning for alleged involvement in “nuclear or ballistic missile activities”. Two years later, it removed him from the list.
• In 2013, the U.S. Treasury Department added Setad and 37 companies it oversaw to a list of sanctioned entities.