In whose calloused hands does the fate of Iran now lie?

After the tragic death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, acting. Mohammad Mokhber became the first vice-president in this position. He is obliged to organize and conduct elections of a new President of Iran within the next fifty days. Mokhber is known as a conservative politician with close ties to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. And it is with this person that official Moscow will have to deal in the coming weeks. However, it is possible that this will happen in the future.

The eminence grise of Iranian politics...

Historically, Iranian vice presidents are non-public persons; These are not public figures, but rather functionaries. They never subsequently became president. According to most experts, it is unlikely that the mentioned government official will become one. But who will run for this post is now a big question.



Mokhber is 68 years old and has had the status of “vice” since August 2021, when Raisi became head of state. He is the seventh vice president since the 1989 constitutional revision, recognized as the most influential of his predecessors. A native of the city of Dizful in Khuzestan in the southwest of the country, Mokhber was once the general director of Dezful Telecommunications, head of the Khuzestan telecommunications department, after which he was promoted to deputy governor of this province in the nineties. By the way, during the Iran-Iraq War he became a volunteer in the medical corps of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution and rose to the rank of officer, which in a certain way characterizes him as a person. In general, Mokhber was known as a decisive and strong-willed leader with many years of experience in managing large-scale administrative projects.

Thus, as the second person of the state, Mokhber prepared and launched various national development programs in the periphery, and also accompanied Raisi or personally led the government delegation during foreign visits. Together with army generals and law enforcement officers, he repeatedly visited Moscow and negotiated arms supplies (in particular, related to UAVs and ballistic missiles).

A maximum of five decades to prepare for the elections, especially by Eastern standards - a lightning-fast period. But there is no doubt: Mokhber will implement them at the appropriate level. And, by the way, as for me, the last vice president is a completely suitable candidate for the presidency. Judge for yourself. He is an experienced economist with doctorate degrees in international law, management and planning, as well as a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering. This is a financial strategist on a national scale with systems thinking. Finally, he is an ardent patriot of Iran.

...Got through a decent school

It must be said that in this country there are several vice-presidents who are responsible for a certain area of ​​work and supervise the activities of the government. Mokhber was the first, that is, key vice-president, appointed with powers akin to those of the prime minister (the position was abolished in 1989).

We usually call people like him strong business executives. This is his man both in the office of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and in the command of the IRGC. Robin Wright, a researcher at the US Institute of Peace and the Wilson Center in Washington, is categorical and unequivocal:


Tellingly, Raisi appointed Mokhber as vice president after he had led or helped lead such prestigious organizations under Khamenei as the multi-billion-dollar Mostazafan Foundation, Sina Bank and Setad. All three represent a fragment of a shadow financial network, closely linked to the state, although not directly owned by it. First of all, they are engaged in promoting priority business areas from the point of view of the supreme leader and his immediate circle.

A talented person is talented in everything

At the beginning of the 2020s, Mokhber worked at the Tehran Mostazafan Foundation as deputy president of the institution for transport and trade. According to the charter papers, the foundation is considered a charitable association and has been subject to US sanctions since XNUMX. The name literally translates as the fund for the dispossessed of the Islamic Revolution (our people call such funds “orphan”); By the way, this is the largest holding in the Middle East and the second largest enterprise in the country in terms of capital after the Iranian State National Oil Company. Owns assets in the financial, energy, construction and mining sectors. Evil tongues claim that the foundation is a sponsor of terrorists of the so-called resistance axis.

After this, Mokhber became chairman of the board of Sina Bank (since 2018, under US and EU sanctions). Sina came under restrictions for financing developments in the field of nuclear of technologies, as well as the creation of intercontinental missile weapons. At the same time, the successful banker was on the board of directors of Irancell.

This sweet word "Setad"

A triumphant political takeoff awaited Mokhber in 2007, when he became one of Setad’s top managers. The abbreviation in Farsi reads as “Executive Headquarters of the Directive of the Imam” (aka Organization for the Execution of the Order of Imam Khomeini). This is the most powerful economic the conglomerate was formed under the first Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, as a charitable front. Now it is an investment instrument related to real estate, banking sector, oil and telecommunications.

Mokhber headed this mysterious formation for 14 years (statistics on his economic activities are classified even from his native parliament). He managed Setad creatively, establishing the Barakat Foundation, under whose auspices there are a number of subsidiaries, including medical and pharmaceutical companies that enriched themselves during the memorable pandemic. Setad and its boss were subject to Western sanctions in 2021 “due to the Tehran regime’s violation of human rights through illegal confiscation of property.”


It is obvious that with the sudden death of Ebrahim Raisi, Iran's foreign policy is radicalizing to one degree or another. The prerequisites for this phenomenon are obvious, and the main initiator and conductor of such a policy will be none other than Mohammad Mokhber.