Who is Mohammad Mokhber?
Iran’s First Vice President, Mohammad Mokhber, was appointed as acting president of the Islamic Republic on Monday after the death of President Ebrahim Raisi. He will be in charge of the government for 50 days until a new president is elected in a new election.
According to Article 131 of Iran’s constitution, with the approval of the Supreme Leader the First Vice President assumes the powers and functions of the President in case of the President’s death. Subsequently, a council consisting of the First Vice President, the Speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, and the Chief Justice will be convened. They must arrange for a new President to be elected within a maximum of 50 days.
Mohammad Mokhber is 69 years old. His father, Abbas Mokhber, was a cleric in the city of Dezul in Khuzestan province.
It is said that in his youth, before the revolution of 1979, he was in contact with the Dezfouli Brothers Group, which formed Mansoroon Group with several other anti-monarchy armed groups in Khuzestan province.
This was the point at which he entered into a circle whose members became the senior commanders of the IRGC, heads of governmental foundations, ministers, and members of parliament after the revolution.
Gholam Ali Rashid, Ali Shamkhani, and Mohsen Rezaei, all high-level commanders in the IRGC, were other members of Mansoroon Group who reached the highest political and military positions.
Mohammad Mokhber, a member of the Expediency Discernment Council, held several important positions in the Islamic Republic before becoming the First Vice President to Ebrahim Raisi. Like many others in Iran after the revolution, he started his career in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
During the Iran-Iraq war, Mokhber was the health officer of the Revolutionary Guard in Dezful. He then became the CEO of Khuzestan Telecommunications, the Deputy Governor of Khuzestan, the Deputy of Commerce and Transportation of the Mostazafan Foundation, and the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sina Bank.
Irancell Contract
Mokhber’s presence in the Mostazafan Foundation coincided with one of the most famous cooperative agreements between Iran and Turkey. President Khatami’s government planned to grant the Irancell project to the Turkish company Turkcell. The contract for this cooperation was signed, but not before the Parliament had forced the government to reduce Turkcell’s share in the project. At the time, the conservatives opposing Khatami’s government held a majority share of the Parliament.
Turkcell was eventually removed from this project entirely, after some MPs subsequently called this contract a “national security threat.” A consortium of companies affiliated with the Mostazafan Foundation and MTN of South Africa eventually won the contract.
At that time, Mohammad Mokhber was a member of the board of directors of the Iran Electronics Development Company, a subsidiary of the Mostazafan Foundation and the Ministry of Defense. He convinced a large number of MPs to oppose the cooperation with Turkcell so that, in the end, the Mostazafan Foundation would partner with MTN in the contract of Irancell the second-largest operator of communications services in Iran.
Because of his role in this contract, he became a member of Irancell’s first board of directors. In August 2005, Mohammad Mokhber officially announced Turkcell’s removal from the project.
Turkish companies, however, filed a complaint against Iran and MTN. This case came to light for the second time in 2017 after documents were discovered about the bribery of the South African ambassador to Iran. In February 2019, South Africa confirmed the arrest of Yusuf Saloojee, the country’s former ambassador to Iran, on charges of taking a $100,000 bribe to help MTN win the 15-year contract to operate in Iran, worth $31.6 billion, from Turkish mobile operator Turkcell. He used the money to buy a house in Pretoria according to South African police.
One of the Mokhber’s most important responsibilities was heading the Execution of Imam Khomeini’s Order, which is directly under the control of the Supreme Leader of Iran.
During his time in the Execution of Imam Khomeini’s Order (EIKO), Mokhber launched the Barkat Foundation, which owns 40 holdings and large companies. The foundation participates in various construction projects and sometimes even competes with the IRGC’s Khatam Al-Anbia construction base.
EIKO is a vast financial empire that was founded after confiscating and taking over properties belonging to Iranians opposing the Islamic Republic.
Since its establishment in 1990, EIKO has created a complex network of companies and expanded and diversified its activities by entering profitable markets in everything from petrochemicals to medicine.
The United States of America sanctioned the EIKO in 2013.
Vaccine affairs
Perhaps the most famous holding of the Barkat Foundation is Barkat Pharmaceutical Holding, developer of Iran’s homegrown COVID vaccine called the “Barkat vaccine”.
The Barkat vaccine became very controversial during the “COVID” pandemic. The Supreme Leader forbade American and British vaccines. EIKO, headed by Mokhber, found a golden opportunity to pocket more money. Barkat Pharmaceutical Group was commissioned to produce an Iranian vaccine.
In December 2020, Mokhber claimed that within six months the EIKO could produce twelve million doses of vaccine per month.
He said: “The Iranian coronavirus vaccine is no less than the vaccines made in other parts of the world, and the vaccine produced by the EIKO’s scientists will have the least side effects.”
At that time, the vaccine had not yet been tested.
Iranian authorities made the Barkat vaccine a symbol of national determination, which could raise Iran to the world’s scientific elite and advanced countries.
A little later, Mokhber was appointed as the new Vice President of Iran. In one of his first actions as vice president, he ordered millions of doses of foreign vaccines to be imported into Iran.The Barkat vaccine was a failed project.
Controversial son
Sajjad Mokhber, the son of Mohammad Mokhber, has a reputation for corruption. While several local journalists have accused him of using his father’s connections for business and profit, he is also reportedly heavily in debt with the banks.
International sanctions
On July 26, 2010, the European Union added Mohammad Mokhber to its sanctions list as a person related to Iran’s nuclear programs. Mokhber was removed from this list two years later.
The US Treasury Department added Mohammad Mokhber to the sanctions list of “Specially Designated Nationals” (SDN) in December 2020. Before that, the Execution of Imam Khomeini’s Order (EIKO) was included on the list.
