TEHRAN, October 19 (HS/RIA Novosti) - Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Monday appointed senior defense official Mehrdad Akhlaghi as the new defense minister nearly eight months after his predecessor, Aziz Nasirzadeh, was killed in an airstrike.

Akhlaghi's candidacy was formally approved by the Iranian parliament on Sunday.

The Iranian president ... following a vote of confidence by the Iranian parliament, has issued a decree appointing Mehrdad Akhlaghi Ketabchi as defense minister, Pezeshkian's office said.

This means that, for the first time in nearly eight months, the Iranian government has a fully-fledged defense minister, following Nasirzadeh's death in the US and Israeli strikes at the very beginning of the conflict in late February.

Majid Ebn al-Reza had been serving as the acting Defense Minister since March 2.

On February 28, the US and Israel began striking targets in Iran, to which Iran responded with strikes of its own. In mid-June, Tehran and Washington signed a memorandum aimed at a cessation of hostilities, but shortly afterward, they exchanged strikes again. At present, the conflict remains unresolved.

On the very first day of the attack, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed. The conflict also claimed the lives of Iran’s top military and political leadership, including Chief of the General Staff of the Iranian armed forces Abdolrahim Mousavi, Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Mohammad Pakpour, Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh, Secretary of the Defense Council Ali Shamkhani and Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council Ali Larijani.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Indrani Sarkar