Who is Mehrdad Akhlaqi Ketabchi, Iran’s new defence minister on enemies’ kill list?

Iran's parliament has appointed Mehrdad Akhlaqi Ketabchi as the new head on Sunday, the state broadcaster IRIB reported. He will take over from Majid Ebn al-Reza, ending his interim leadership at the ​ministry. Akhlaqi received 237 votes in favour and 15 against, with no abstentions, out of 277 votes cast during a parliamentary session. Akhlaqi is the first permanent Defence Minister after Aziz Nasirzadeh, who was killed in the initial US-Israeli attacks on Iran on March 1.

In his first remarks after being appointed to the role, he warned Donald Trump about the US forces in the region and their safe exit.

"The US President should focus on ensuring his forces are withdrawn safely from our region.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," said Akhlaqi, apparently referring to potential US military casualties. He pledged to rebuild the country's military-industrial infrastructure, accelerate development of defence technologies, further strengthen what Iran calls the “resistance front.”

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"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, referring to the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb.

Who is Mehrdad Akhlaqi Ketabchi?

Unlike Nasirzadeh, who was a certified F-14 Tomcat fighter pilot for the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force and later became a General who rose through the ranks, Akhlaqi was a technocrat, a veteran defence industry executive who previously served as the head of the Aerospace Industries Organisation and the Defence Industries Organisation. While Nasirzadeh frequently emphasised defensive posturing, Akhlaqi is more aggressive and entered office with a confrontational, post-war reconstruction mandate. Iran's new Defence Minister is on the sanctions list of both the US and the UN because of his central role in developing Iran's ballistic missile architecture. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Akhlaqi also said he had been on what he called his enemies’ “assassination list” for 35 years.