Published on August 10, 2021

On August 8^th, 2021, Ebrahim RAISI, Iran’s new President named Mohammad MOKHBER as his first vice-president, according to the president’s official website.

Mohammad MOKHBER, has for years headed the foundation known as Setad, or the Execution of Imam Khomeini’s order, in reference to the Islamic Republic’s founder Ruhollah KHOMEINI. He was also part of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali KHAMENEI’s executive staff.

In that role, he established the Barakat Foundation, the Ehsan Foundation, the Barakat Knowledge Foundation and the Tadbir Economic Development Group.

The Setad was originally founded in the late 1980s to manage confiscated properties following the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

MOKHBER was appointed to the position by the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali KHAMENEI in 2007, following a string of official positions at the southwestern province of Khuzestan.

The Setad and MOKHBER were blacklisted by the US Treasury in January 2021. Washington had said that Setad “has a stake in nearly every sector of the Iranian economy, including energy, telecommunications, and financial services”.

RAISI also picked Gholamhossein ESMAILI, the judiciary’s spokesman during his tenure, as his chief of staff. A former prosecutor, he is under sanctions by the EU. He was first blacklisted in 2011 as Iran’s prisons’ organization chief over “serious human rights violations”.

Also, on August 8^th, the ultraconservative MP and 2021 presidential candidate Alireza ZAKANI was elected as mayor of Tehran, state news agency IRNA reported.

He won the majority of conservative-dominated city council votes, but he cannot take over before resigning from the parliament, it said.

He succeeds Pirouz HANACHI, a veteran public servant with a background in urban development seen as close to the reformist camp.

ZAKANI has served in parliament between 2004 and 2016, and won a seat again last year. A doctor in nuclear medicine, aged 55, he dropped out of the June presidential race in favor of RAISI.

RAISI has two weeks to announce the rest of his Cabinet and present the names to MPs for approval. He is expected to make the rest of his appointments over the coming week.

This article was edited using the data from the Dailystar.com, Timesofisrael.com, English.aawsat.com, Thenews.com.pk, and, Thenationalnews.com.