Iran’s parliament approved Mehrdad Akhlaghi Ketabchi as the country’s new defence minister on Sunday 18 October, Al Jazeera reports. AFP, citing the government website, reported that he won 237 of the 277 votes cast. Xinhua, citing the state news agency IRNA, reported 237 in favour and 15 against with no abstentions, while IranWire said 25 of the 277 lawmakers present abstained; the sources differ on abstentions. The 68-year-old will lead the Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces Logistics.
Al Jazeera says parliament has been meeting online since the war with the United States and Israel began on 28 February. The previous defence minister, Aziz Nasirzadeh, was killed on the opening day of the war together with a number of other senior figures, the report says, and Majid Ebn-e Reza has held the post temporarily. He will now become Akhlaghi’s deputy.
The Minister and His Record
According to Al Jazeera, Akhlaghi’s plans had been approved beforehand by senior military authorities, President Masoud Pezeshkian and parliament’s Commission on National Security and Foreign Policy. Pezeshkian said the new minister has more than 42 years of experience in the Defence Ministry and related bodies. State media, as cited by the outlet, describe his main expertise as ballistic missiles, solid-fuel propulsion, aerospace technology and military-industrial production, and he previously headed the Shahid Bagheri Industrial Group, the Aerospace Industries Organization and the Defence Industries Organization.
The report notes that Akhlaghi and these entities are subject to United States sanctions, and that he is also under United Nations sanctions. Tasnim, a newspaper linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, says he was involved in developing several missile types, according to Al Jazeera.
Priorities and Early Remarks
Al Jazeera reports that Akhlaghi will be responsible for rebuilding and expanding Iran’s military-industrial infrastructure, which it says has been heavily targeted by the United States and Israel. He told lawmakers earlier in October that his priorities would include faster military-industrial development, air defences, the use of emerging technologies with government and private-sector firms, better welfare for the armed forces and more international military cooperation, the outlet said.
The outlet adds that the US says it destroyed most of Iran’s military-industrial capacity, while Tehran says it retains considerable capabilities. Pezeshkian said Iran would not be the instigator of aggression against any country but would defend its territorial integrity against it. In his first remarks as minister, Akhlaghi responded to recent threats from the administration of US President Donald Trump, according to Al Jazeera.
Why It Matters
The confirmation comes nearly eight months after the strikes that killed his predecessor, AFP noted, and fills a post that had been held on an acting basis. As Al Jazeera frames it, it comes at a time when the conflict is expected to escalate. For observers, the choice of a long-serving defence-industry figure is a signal about government priorities, as the outlet reports it, though the claims each side makes about military capability are those of the parties and have not been independently verified here.
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