Iran: New Minister of Defense promises to fight back in the event of further attacks

O iran’s new Minister of Defense, Mehrdad Akhlaghi, who took office today after a vote in parliament, warned that in the event of further US attacks Iran would fight back by causing “ considerable damage” in the Middle East.

“ Rest assured: they [the Americans] will certainly not dare to attack us. But if they do, both they and the region will suffer considerable damage,” said Mehrdad Akhlaghi, who is subject to UN sanctions.

Mehrdad Akhlaghi has today received a vote of confidence from Parliament — a body which must give its full backing for a minister to take office and also have the power to remove him.

The post of Defense Minister is strategic, although most military decisions fall to the Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, as well as the Guardians of the Revolution, the powerful armed force of the Islamic Republic.

Akhlaghi, 68 years old, takes office after an eight-month period of absence from the ministry, replacing the predecessor, who died in late February, right on the first day of the war in the Middle East.

Until then, the portfolio was being held by an interim General of the Guardians of the Revolution, Majid Ebnelreza, who was an adjunct to the former minister, General Aziz Nassirzadeh, who held the office from 2024 until his death on 28 February during an Israeli-American attack on Iran.

This attack, in which, among others, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, the Chief of Staff of the Abdolrahim Mousavi Armed Forces, commander of the Revolutionary Guard Mohammad Pakpour, as well as Ali Shamkhani, an influential security adviser, died marked the beginning of the war in the Middle East.

Mehrdad Akhlaghi, who is not military, has worked for 42 years in the ministry he will now direct.

Since 2013 he has been in charge of Iran's Defense Industries Organisation, an agency linked to the Ministry of Defence responsible for designing and manufacturing military material.

According to local media, Mehrdad Akhlaghi worked for many years in the aerospace and missile sectors of Iran.

For this reason, since 2007, UN sanctions related to Iran’s missile and nuclear programmes — programmes that for decades have fueled tensions with Western countries, especially the United States and its ally Israel, the enemy of the Islamic Republic.

As a result of these sanctions, any property owned abroad is frozen, among other measures.