Iranian President Ebrahim Raïssi, who took office this week, appointed Mohammad Mokhber, the director of a powerful US-sanctioned parastatal foundation, as first vice-president on Sunday, according to the presidency's website.
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Mohammad Mokhber has headed since 2007 the Foundation of the Order of Imam (Setad), after having held several official positions in the province of Khuzestan (southwest).
Setad was founded in the late 1980s to manage properties confiscated as a result of the 1979 Islamic Revolution and over the years has grown into a major state economic conglomerate with shares in various sectors including health .
Setad, whose president is appointed by the Iranian Supreme Leader, is notably responsible, through his Barekat Foundation, for the development of Iran's first anti-ovid vaccine, which in June received emergency authorization from the authorities in this most affected country. of the Middle and Near East by the pandemic.
Both the Setad Foundation and Mr. Mokhber have been on the US Treasury's blacklist since January, with Washington claiming that Setad "
had shares in almost all sectors of the Iranian economy, including energy, telecommunications and financial services
."
Winner on June 18 in a presidential election marked by a record abstention, Mr. Raïssi, an ultraconservative, succeeds the moderate Hassan Rohani.
This former head of the Judicial Authority has been criticized by the West for his human rights record, and sanctioned by the United States since 2019.
President Raïssi has also chosen Gholamhossein Esmaili, until then spokesperson for the Judicial Authority, as his chief of staff.
A former prosecutor, Mr. Esmaili is targeted by European Union sanctions and had been on his blacklist since 2011, when he was the head of the prison organization, for “
serious human rights violations
”.
Raïssi's presidency will consolidate the power of the conservatives, who had already won the 2020 legislative elections, marked by the disqualification of several thousand reformist and moderate candidates.
An ultra-conservative member of parliament (2004-2016, 2020), Alireza Zakani, was elected mayor of Tehran on Sunday, the state-run Irna news agency reported.
Zakani, who will have to resign from his post as an MP to take office, succeeds Pirouz Hanachi, a civil service veteran with experience in urban development and perceived to be close to the reform camp. A candidate for the 2021 presidential election, this 55-year-old doctor of nuclear medicine had withdrawn from the race in favor of Mr. Raïssi.
