Iran’s Congress approves appointment of new defense minister familiar with military manufacturing and procurement

(Central News Agency, Tehran, Comprehensive Foreign News Report on the 18th) Iran’s parliament today approved the appointment of Mehrdad Akhlaqi Ketabchi as Defense Minister, ending several months of acting defense ministers leading the country’s defense. The new defense minister has extensive experience in Iran’s military production and procurement mechanisms.

According to reports from Reuters and Agence France-Presse, Iran's former Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh died in a joint U.S.-Israeli airstrike in February this year, and Majid Ebn al-Reza has been acting in the position ever since.

Akrakhi has more than 40 years of experience in the Iranian Defense Ministry and has held senior positions in the aerospace and missile fields, so he is also on the sanctions lists of the United States and the European Union (EU).

In the policy plan submitted to the Iranian Congress, Akrakhi promised that he would rebuild Iran's military-industrial infrastructure, accelerate the development of defense science and technology, and expand cooperation with private enterprises.

He also said that Tehran has taken necessary countermeasures in response to the possibility that the United States will use the so-called "mother of all bombs" to attack Iran.

CNN reported this week that the United States is considering the possibility of using the Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb (MOAB) GBU-43/B, commonly known as the "mother of all bombs," to attack Iran's energy infrastructure and nuclear development sites. This is the largest bomb other than nuclear weapons currently in the U.S. arsenal.