Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei approves Mohammad Mokhber as acting President

Tehran: Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has named First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber as acting president in the wake of Ebrahim Raisi’s death in a helicopter crash.

Khamenei also ordered five days of national mourning for Raisi, the hardliner who had held the presidency since 2021.

Khamenei described Raisi as “tireless” and said the Iranian people had lost a “valuable and sincere person.”

According to protocol, Mokhber had been expected to become interim president. New elections will now have to be held within 50 days.

Mokhber, 68, largely has been in the shadows compared to other politicians in Iran’s Shia theocracy. Raisi’s death under the constitution thrust Mokhber into public view. Despite his low-key public profile, 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. (IANS)

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