On the day Iran's parliament approved a new defense minister, the Iranian navy claimed more tankers crossing the Strait of Hormuz in violation of its rules are being damaged. Washington's official reaction and current oil price effects could not be confirmed.
Kyunghyang Shinmun reported that Iran's parliament on the 18th, local time, approved Mehrdad Ahlaghi Ketabchi, 68, as defense minister. State news agency IRNA said he had been nominated by President Masoud Pezeshkian. Until then, Revolutionary Guard Maj. Gen. Majid Ebnoreza had been acting minister.
광고 문의 · 300×250His predecessor, Aziz Nasirzadeh, was reportedly killed in a surprise US-Israeli attack on February 28. Ketabchi previously headed the Iran Aviation Industries Organization and the state defense firm Shahid Bagheri Industries Group, and Al Jazeera reported he has expertise in ballistic missiles and aerospace technology.
The intact exit remark
Speaking to reporters in parliament, Ketabchi said the US president should think about how to withdraw his military from the region intact. Kyunghyang said he warned that if the US dropped even one bomb on Iran, American soldiers would be carried out on stretchers. His first public message in office was thus a hard-line deterrence signal.
Tanker damage in Hormuz
Xinhua, as carried by Huanqiu.com, reported that on the 17th the Iranian navy said the number of tankers damaged while trying to cross the Strait of Hormuz restricted zone in violation of the rules has recently been rising. The navy said a monitoring team at the strait's eastern entrance found a burning tanker, unable to navigate, in the Gulf of Oman.
The Revolutionary Guard navy separately claimed that two supertankers hit mines in Hormuz and caught fire. One carried more than 2 million barrels of crude and, by Iran's account, had switched off all navigation and radar systems while trying to transit with US military support. The navy insisted the strait is not open, urged countries not to be misled by US claims and said safe passage requires coordination with Iran's armed forces. These are Iranian claims and were not independently verified.
The US position on this episode could not be confirmed. In July, when the Guard claimed two tankers exploded in a mined area, the US denied it, and in March President Trump warned Iran not to lay mines and claimed US forces had destroyed minelaying vessels. How Washington responded to the 17th incident was not found.
The strait carries roughly a fifth of the world's petroleum liquids. Reports said crude topped 100 dollars a barrel on March 9 for the first time since 2022 and rose above 106 dollars in late April. The current October price level was not confirmed in this search, though US diesel prices more than 70 percent above a year earlier point to the spillover of the disruption.
With Iran's new defense leadership signaling a hard line and the navy reasserting control of the strait, tension over maritime safety is likely to persist. Details such as the flags and casualties of the damaged ships remain unconfirmed and await further reporting.