Mehrdad Akhlaghi, the Islamic Republic's new defence minister, threatens US forces

Mehrdad Akhlaghi Ketabchi, a sanctioned executive of the missile industries who won a vote of confidence from the Islamic Republic's parliament on Sunday 18 October 2026, threatened American forces in the region in his first remarks as defence minister. At the same time Mohsen Rezaei, a former commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, announced that a new plan was being readied to counter a possible US and Israeli attack.

Akhlaghi said that if the United States made another miscalculation, the Islamic Republic's response would be surprising and wide-ranging. Addressing Donald Trump, he said the US president had better think about the safe withdrawal of his forces from the region, and added that if he dropped even a single bomb, "he will see how many of his forces leave the region horizontally." The new defence minister also claimed that the Islamic Republic had devised the necessary measures to counter a possible American use of the GBU-43 bomb, known as the "mother of all bombs."

From the IRGC's missile programme to the defence ministry

Parliament voted 237 to 15 to give Akhlaghi a vote of confidence, ending months of acting leadership at the ministry after Aziz Nasirzadeh, the former defence minister, was killed in the US and Israeli attacks of February. Akhlaghi has worked for decades in the Islamic Republic's defence and missile industries and, as head of the Shahid Bagheri Industrial Group, was sanctioned under UN Security Council Resolution 1747; his name also appears on the European Union's sanctions list. He called rebuilding the infrastructure of the military industries and accelerating defence technology his priorities.

Mohsen Rezaei, reacting to warnings from US and Israeli officials, said the Islamic Republic's response to any new attack would be more devastating than before.

Threats against Washington's warnings

These remarks come as Pete Hegseth, the US war secretary, has said the Islamic Republic must soon choose between abandoning its nuclear programme and military confrontation, and Israel Katz, Israel's defence minister, has announced readiness to resume attacks. CNN had reported that possible US plans for new strikes might also include the use of the GBU-43 bomb against energy infrastructure and nuclear facilities; the final decision rests with Trump.

The choice of one of the main figures of the sanctioned missile programme for the defence ministry, and his first remarks, show that after eight months of war and a naval blockade, the Islamic Republic still relies on the language of threats and a missile race.

The first message of the Islamic Republic's new defence minister was a threat against US forces in the region.