Iranian lawmakers on Sunday approved Mehrdad Akhlaghi as the country’s new defence minister, replacing his predecessor who was killed on the first day of the war with the United States.
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 Although he does not hold a military rank.
“Members of the Islamic Consultative Assembly (parliament) today gave a vote of confidence to Mehrdad Akhlaghi, the nominee for minister of defence and armed forces logistics,” state television reported, nearly eight months after the initial US-Israeli strikes that sparked the conflict. Akhlaghi “was elected to the post with 237 votes in favour”, out of a total of 277 votes cast, according to the government website. “If I receive parliament’s vote of confidence, responsibility for the Ministry of Defence will fall to me at a sensitive juncture,” Akhlaghi said before the vote, according to the ISNA news agency.
