Sanctioned missile executive Mehrdad Akhlaghi becomes defence minister with 237 votes

On Sunday, 18 October 2026, in a virtual session, the Islamic Republic's parliament gave a vote of confidence to Mehrdad Akhlaghi Ketabchi, a long-standing executive of the Islamic Republic's missile and aerospace industries, to take over the Defence Ministry. The vote follows DIAR's earlier report on the review of his qualifications. Of the 277 deputies present, 237 voted in favour and 15 against.

Ahmad Naderi, a member of the parliament's presiding board, cited the country's "exceptional circumstances" as the reason for holding the session virtually; parliament had earlier changed its rules to allow a virtual, paperless vote of confidence.

The new defence minister's remarks on a "fourth war"

At the qualification hearing, Akhlaghi said the Islamic Republic has its "finger on the trigger" in facing Israel and spoke of readiness for what he called a "fourth war". He claimed the Islamic Republic's defensive capability had been completed after the 12-day war and warned that any new "miscalculation" by the United States and Israel would be met with a broad response. He also promised to increase weapons production and strengthen what the government calls the "axis of resistance", and said he would raise the share of outsourced defence production from about 55 percent to more than 85 percent in the Iranian year 1406 (2027–28).

In defending his nominee, Masoud Pezeshkian pointed to Akhlaghi's record of working with Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh and Amirali Hajizadeh, three key figures of the Islamic Republic's missile and nuclear programme.

Mehrdad Akhlaghi's sanctions record

For years Akhlaghi headed the Bagheri Industrial Group, which the UN Security Council sanctioned in 2007 over its role in the ballistic missile programme, placing his name on the sanctions list. From 2014 he led the Aerospace Industries Organisation. The United States sanctioned him in 2020 as head of the Defence Industries Organisation, and when UN sanctions were reimposed in August–September 2025, his name returned to the UN list.

Since February–March 2026, after the killing of former minister Aziz Nasirzadeh in a joint US–Israeli strike, the Defence Ministry has been run by an acting minister. The choice of a sanctioned missile executive in the midst of the US naval blockade and Washington's fresh threats shows that the Islamic Republic still insists on expanding its missile programme.

The Islamic Republic's new defence minister is the very executive whom the United Nations and the United States have sanctioned over the missile programme.