The Product of Khamenei's Economic Machine; Who is Mohammad Mokhber?

Mohammad Mokhber, the First Vice President of the Islamic Republic, took over the affairs of the executive branch of Iran following the death of Ebrahim Raisi. According to Article 131 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic, "In the event of the death, dismissal, resignation, absence, or illness of the President for more than two months, or in cases where the presidential term has ended and a new president has not yet been elected due to obstacles or similar matters, the First Vice President, with the approval of the Leader, assumes the powers and responsibilities of the President." Based on the same law, "a council consisting of the Speaker of the Parliament, the Head of the Judiciary, and the First Vice President is obliged to arrange for the election of a new president within a maximum of fifty days." Now, Mohammad Mokhber, the First Vice President of Iran, is unintentionally faced with a new mission. Who is Mohammad Mokhber? Born on June 24, 1955, in Dezful, Khuzestan Province in southwestern Iran, he rose through the ranks in the 1980s by working at the Foundation of the Oppressed and Disabled, a body under the Office of the Supreme Leader. Positions he held during that time included Deputy for Commerce and Transportation at the Foundation of the Oppressed, Chairman of the Board of Sina Bank, and Deputy Governor of Khuzestan. In 2007, he was appointed as the head of the "Executive Headquarters of Imam's Command" and mentioned three principles of "Islamic, revolutionary, and disciplined" as the main points of his agenda during his inauguration. In December 2020, while in this position, he was placed on the U.S. sanctions list. Previously, in 2010, during EU sanctions, Mokhber was also sanctioned for his connections to Iran's missile and nuclear programs, but two years later, his name was removed from the EU sanctions list. Reuters reported in 2013 that the Supreme Leader oversees the "Executive Headquarters of Imam's Command," which is estimated to have assets worth "over $95 billion." Additionally, other reports estimate that the Executive Headquarters of Imam's Command and the Astan Quds Razavi, along with the Foundation of the Oppressed and Khatam al-Anbiya, a body owned by the Revolutionary Guards, control more than half of Iran's economy. The assets and activities of these institutions are outside the oversight of the Parliament and are not dependent on the national budget. In July 2019, Mokhber hosted several commanders of the Popular Mobilization Forces, the most important paramilitary group supported by the Islamic Republic in Iraq, and reports and photos of this meeting were published in official news agencies. Mokhber has been working as the seventh First Vice President of Iran since 2021 in the thirteenth government. Given that Raisi had no prior executive experience, some observers believed that Mohammad Mokhber effectively took over the management of Ebrahim Raisi's government and even played a direct role in determining economic ministers. Since 2022, he has also been a member of the Expediency Discernment Council. During the COVID-19 outbreak in Iran, Mokhber repeatedly promised to produce millions of vaccines, despite Khamenei's order banning the import of American and British vaccines. The "Barakat" Institute, which is an economic entity under the Supreme Leader's office, was tasked with producing COVID-19 vaccines using "government credits." This decision raised issues of rent-seeking and the exploitation of Khamenei's economic entities during the pandemic with Mokhber's intervention. The name of Sajjad Mokhber, Mohammad Mokhber's son, has been mentioned in corruption cases related to the sale of Iranian oil, and according to some reports, he has been a bank debtor. Transparency International ranks the Islamic Republic of Iran among the most corrupt countries in its annual reports. Furthermore, during Ebrahim Raisi's presidency, Mokhber was appointed to lead a committee called "Asset Generation of State Property" under Khamenei's support, which aims to sell public assets and properties of the country.