Iran's parliament names Mehrdad Akhlaghi as new defence minister

Iran’s parliament has approved Mehrdad Akhlaghi Ketabchi as the country’s new minister of defence and armed forces logistics, ending months of interim leadership at the ministry following the death of his predecessor in the US-Israeli strikes of February, AFP reported.

Lawmakers in the Islamic Consultative Assembly gave Akhlaghi a vote of confidence on Sunday, with 237 votes in favour and 15 against out of 277 votes cast, during a parliamentary session held via video conference, Anadolu Agency reported.

He replaces Aziz Nasirzadeh, who was killed in a US-Israeli attack on a leadership compound on 28 February alongside former supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and senior military commanders. Majid Ebn al-Reza had served as acting defence minister since.

Although he holds no military rank, Akhlaghi has worked in the defence ministry for 42 years and has headed the Iranian Defence Industries Organisation, the state’s weapons manufacturer, since 2013. He previously held senior roles in Iran’s aerospace and missile sectors, and was sanctioned by the United Nations in 2007 over alleged nuclear or ballistic missile activities. He is also subject to US and EU sanctions, Reuters reported.

“If I receive parliament’s vote of confidence, responsibility for the Ministry of Defence will fall to me at a sensitive juncture,” Akhlaghi told lawmakers before the vote, according to the ISNA news agency. “Defending the country requires an accurate understanding of the environment, an understanding of the logic behind developments, the identification of influential trends, and preparedness to face different possible futures.”

In a programme presented to parliament, he pledged to rebuild the country’s military-industrial infrastructure, accelerate the development of defence technologies and expand cooperation with private-sector companies.

After securing approval, Akhlaghi said Iran had taken measures to counter the potential use by the US of the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb, known as the “mother of all bombs”, and warned Washington against another attack. “If the American enemy makes another miscalculation, the response of the valiant Iranian people and the fighters of Islam will be surprising and extensive,” he said. “If he drops a single bomb, he will have to see how many of his troops end up being carried out of the region in a horizontal position.”

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