Iran has a new defence minister: the country's parliament approved Mehrdad Akhlaqi Ketabchi for the post on Sunday, ending months of interim leadership at the ministry and placing a former head of the Aerospace Industries Organisation in charge of Iran's defence production and procurement apparatus, Reuters reported. Akhlaqi, who has spent decades in Iran's defence industry, takes over a ministry whose previous permanent holder was killed in the US-Israeli strikes that opened the regional war in February — and he used his confirmation programme to pledge a rebuild of the military-industrial base those strikes damaged.
Who is Mehrdad Akhlaqi?
He is a defence-production insider rather than a field commander. Akhlaqi has spent decades in Iran's defence industry and has held senior roles in its aerospace and missile sectors, Reuters reported, including heading the country's Aerospace Industries Organisation. The ministry he now leads is the production and procurement side of Iran's armed forces — the apparatus that builds and buys the missiles, drones and air defences the war has consumed. His background is also the reason he is personally sanctioned abroad: he is subject to US and EU sanctions over his work in Iran's defence sector, Reuters reported. Parliament's approval, reported by Iranian state media and carried by Reuters on Sunday, makes him the ministry's first permanent holder in months.
Why was the post held on an interim basis?
Because his predecessor was killed in the war's opening strikes. Akhlaqi replaces Majid Ebn al-Reza, who took over in an interim capacity after then Defence Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh was killed by US-Israeli strikes in February, Reuters reported. The February strikes began the wider regional conflict that has since drawn in Lebanon, Yemen and the Gulf shipping lanes: Hezbollah entered the war in support of Tehran in March, the Houthis resumed and expanded their campaign in the Red Sea and against Saudi Arabia, and fighting reignited inside Yemen over the summer. A defence ministry run on an interim basis through those months was, in effect, running wartime production without a confirmed political head — the gap Sunday's vote closed.
What did he promise lawmakers?
A rebuild, faster technology development, and a bigger role for private companies. In a programme presented to lawmakers, Akhlaqi pledged to rebuild the country's military-industrial infrastructure, accelerate the development of defence technologies and expand cooperation with private-sector companies, Reuters reported. Each element maps to a wartime pressure the reporting has documented: infrastructure rebuild after the February strikes and the campaign that followed; accelerated technology development in the missile and drone sectors where Akhlaqi built his career; and private-sector cooperation as a way to widen a production base that sanctions — including the sanctions on Akhlaqi himself — are designed to constrict.
What did he say about the United States?
He warned Washington, in direct terms, against striking Iran again. "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, adding that Tehran had taken necessary measures to counter the potential use by the US of its "mother of all bombs" against Iran. CNN reported this week that the US has developed strike plans that could include using the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb, also known as the "mother of all bombs", against Iranian energy infrastructure and nuclear sites if President Donald Trump orders renewed combat operations; the weapon is the largest non-nuclear bomb in the US arsenal, Reuters noted. "The US President should focus on ensuring his forces are withdrawn safely from our region. 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," Akhlaqi said.
Why does the appointment matter beyond Tehran?
Because the defence-production question now sits at the centre of the regional war's economics as well as its battlefields. The war with Iran has disrupted global oil supplies and pushed energy prices high enough to shape decisions in Washington far from the Middle East: this weekend, Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended both a US-Russia diesel-supply agreement and a 60-day review of waived Russia sanctions by pointing to fuel prices that have climbed amid the war with Iran. "These conflicts around the world are starting to crash into each other," Rubio said. A confirmed Iranian defence minister whose stated programme is to rebuild production and accelerate missile and drone technology is Tehran's institutional answer to the same pressure — an appointment made eight months into a war, aimed at the industrial capacity to sustain it.
This article is drawn from Reuters reporting opened and read for this article: Reuters' October 18, 2026 report on Akhlaqi's approval, with regional context from Reuters' October 16 Taiz report and October 18 Rubio report, also opened and read. Akhlaqi's statements are his own, made in his programme to Iranian lawmakers as reported by Reuters; the CNN strike-plans report is CNN's, as cited by Reuters.
