Iran Dangles Hormuz Reopening as New Defense Chief Warns US

Iran says it can reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days. Its new defense minister warns that the region will “suffer enormous damage” if Washington resumes its military campaign. The two messages came on the same Sunday, showing how fragile the situation remains nearly eight months after the first U.S.-Israeli strikes.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Iranian media outlets that Tehran’s offer to the United States remains on the table. If Washington accepts Iran’s conditions, he said, the strategic waterway would open within six days, and U.S.-Iran talks would resume on the seventh. The base reporting doesn’t spell out those conditions, leaving a gap in the public record about what a deal would demand.

A Warning From the New Defense Minister

The other message was blunter. Mehrdad Akhlaghi, newly appointed as Iran’s defense minister, spoke to reporters shortly after securing parliament’s vote of confidence. “People can rest assured that they will most likely not dare to attack us,” he said. “If they (the US) do, they themselves and the region will suffer enormous damage.”

That last phrase matters beyond Washington and Tehran. “The region” means the people who live there, and in a war that has already reached leadership compounds and killed senior commanders, the threat of wider damage isn’t abstract. Akhlaghi named “the United States and its allies in the Middle East” as potential targets. Communities across the Gulf and beyond sit inside that sentence, with no say in decisions that could put them there.

A Government Rebuilt After Loss

Iranian lawmakers approved Akhlaghi’s appointment with 237 votes in favor out of 277 cast, according to the government website. State television said members of the Islamic Consultative Assembly gave a vote of confidence to the nominee for minister of defense and armed forces logistics.

He replaces Aziz Nasirzadeh, killed on February 28 in a U.S.-Israeli attack on a leadership compound. Former supreme leader Ali Khamenei and senior military commanders died in the same strike. Nearly eight months passed before the confirmation vote, leaving the ministry without a confirmed head for that long.

Before the vote, Akhlaghi told the ISNA news agency: “If I receive parliament’s vote of confidence, responsibility for the Ministry of Defense will fall to me at a sensitive juncture.” He added that defending the country requires “an accurate understanding of the environment, an understanding of the logic behind developments, the identification of influential trends, and preparedness to face different possible futures.”

Who Akhlaghi Is

Akhlaghi holds no military rank. He has worked in the defense ministry for 42 years and has led the Iranian Defense Industries Organization, the state’s weapons manufacturer, since 2013—a 13-year tenure. The United Nations sanctioned him in 2007 over his alleged involvement in nuclear or ballistic missile activities, 19 years ago.

The man now directing Iran’s defense policy comes from the state’s weapons-production side, not the battlefield. That doesn’t make his warning softer. It does suggest a figure steeped in the industrial machinery behind Iran’s arsenal, speaking as Tehran pairs a deadline-driven diplomatic offer with an explicit threat.

Why This Matters: A seven-day offer and a warning of “enormous damage” arrived on the same day. Together, they show how little room diplomacy has when each side keeps military options in reserve. The Strait of Hormuz is a strategic waterway, and its closure carries consequences well beyond the two governments negotiating over it. Civilians who would absorb any resumed fighting have no seat in these talks. Nearly eight months after the first strikes, the offer on the table is a narrow opening; whether Washington takes it will help determine whether the region faces another round of damage or returns to negotiation.