Iran’s parliament has confirmed Mehrdad Akhlaghi Ketabchi as the country’s new defence minister.

Within hours he warned Washington that any fresh “miscalculation” would draw a response that would be both surprising and extensive.

Lawmakers approved the veteran defence official on Sunday in an open session of the Islamic Consultative Assembly. State media reported 237 votes in favour and 15 against, out of 277 votes cast, with no abstentions. He takes over the Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces Logistics, which has been without a permanent head for nearly eight months.

He succeeds Aziz Nasirzadeh, who was killed on February 28, the first day of the US-Israeli war on Iran. That attack on a leadership compound also killed then-supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and several senior military commanders. Akhlaghi is described as a senior Defence Ministry figure who previously headed the country’s Aerospace Industries Organization.

Speaking after the vote, Akhlaghi cast the US as the aggressor and said the Iranian nation and what he called the “warriors of Islam” would answer any new American misstep.

He added that the regional and global consequences would rest solely on the US government and its allies. He also said Iran’s defensive capabilities have been refined and updated since the 12-day war, to the point that they have changed the enemy’s assessments and calculations.

The reference is to the earlier round of fighting between Iran and Israel before the current war.

The warning comes as tensions across the Gulf keep climbing. The US has imposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports, and Iran has declared the Strait of Hormuz closed, with a record number of ship attacks reported around the waterway this month. Washington is also reported to be drawing up options for fresh strikes on Iran, including the possible use of its largest conventional bomb.

A memorandum of understanding signed in June to end the war has collapsed, and both sides have resumed attacks.