Seyed Mohammad Marandi looked into a camera and said Iran wants an American land invasion. The University of Tehran professor and former advisor to Iran's nuclear negotiation team claimed his country would win. He also boasted that Tehran had introduced a new missile and spent decades burying and dispersing its arsenal.
The Americans are preparing for a ground offensive, and big surprises await them.
— Global Insight Journal (@GlobalIJournal) July 18, 2026
— Iranian politician Mohammad Marandi
pic.twitter.com/TmlYxbz20w
Listening to him, one question presses hard: Why would God create people who seem to wish for the ruin of others? From Fox News:
Seyed Mohammad Marandi, an Iranian American academic identified as a regime "mouthpiece," also boasted that Tehran had just launched a "new missile" while decentralizing and burying its arsenal deep underground to withstand sustained American air campaigns.
"The Americans are planning an invasion. I'm not saying it will necessarily happen. I'm not saying it will necessarily happen in the next few days. But they have plans for an invasion," Marandi, a former advisor to Iran's nuclear negotiation team, said in an interview with political analyst Glenn Diesen.
"Whether they carry them out or not, we'll see. But the Iranians, as you pointed out, the focus of Iranian strikes is on Bahrain and Kuwait, and that's because that's where most American assets have been placed for a ground invasion," Diesen said.
The answer is painful because it leaves human beings responsible. God creates people with reason, conscience, and free will. People decide whether to protect life or feed pride, hatred, and power.
Marandi's words weren't empty claims about a small arsenal; Iran possesses thousands of ballistic and cruise missiles, giving it the largest and most varied missile force in the Middle East.
Iran possesses the largest and most diverse missile arsenal in the Middle East, with thousands of ballistic and cruise missiles, some capable of striking as far as Israel and eastern Europe. For the past decade, Iran has invested significantly to improve these weapons’ precision and lethality. Such developments have made Iran’s missile forces a potent tool for Iranian power projection and a credible threat to U.S. and partner military forces in the region. Iran has not yet tested or deployed a missile capable of striking the United States, but continues to hone longer-range missile technologies under the auspices of its space-launch program.
Iran is also an active proliferator, supplying missiles, rockets, and unmanned aerial systems (UAS) to partners and proxies across the World, including Iraq, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Palestinian Territories, Yemen, and Russia. Since 2015, Iran has provided Yemen’s Houthi rebels with increasingly advanced ballistic and cruise missiles, as well as long-range UAS. In Iraq, Iran has been equipping Shiite militia groups with rockets and other small projectiles for use against Iraqi and U.S. military and diplomatic facilities. Most recently, Iran has provided Russia with advanced UAS, including the Shahed-131 and -136, to use against Ukraine.
Its weapons can reach Israel, U.S. forces, and American partners across the region. Tehran has also spent years hardening bases, building silos, and placing launch equipment underground.
The Imam Ali Missile Base near Khorramabad shows how long the work has continued. The complex includes underground facilities capable of holding Shahab-3 missiles, along with mobile launchers and storage areas. Parts of the base were damaged in 2025, but Iran's broader missile network was built for survival, concealment, and repeated use.
Marandi speaks about those preparations with cold excitement. Ordinary families are already paying for them. An Iranian missile attack on a base in Jordan killed two American service members and hospitalized four.
Unidentified remains were later recovered as the military worked to account for a missing third service member. Iran has also attacked U.S.-allied countries across the Middle East.
Kuwait reported attacks on a power and water desalination plant for the second time in two days. About 90% of Kuwait's drinking water comes from desalination.
Iranian authorities, meanwhile, said at least 50 people had been killed and 517 wounded in the latest American strikes inside Iran. Each boast invites another strike, another funeral, and another family waiting for news.
A man can call war glorious when he removes the faces from it. Marandi listed missiles, tunnels, and years of preparation; he didn't speak of Iranian children hearing explosions, parents searching hospitals, or young conscripts ordered into a fight they didn't choose. He talked about victory while others would carry the dead.
Perhaps his words were meant to deter President Donald Trump from ordering a ground campaign. Deterrence still requires judgment. Announcing that your country wants an invasion can encourage escalation, miscalculation, and more bloodshed.
A government that values its people tries to keep foreign armies out. Tehran's defenders sound eager to prove how many lives they're willing to sacrifice.
God didn't build Iran's missile tunnels. He didn't command Marandi to welcome invasion; humans made those choices. Pride can turn intelligence into cruelty, faith into a slogan, and patriotism into permission to spend other people's lives.
Marandi's boast reveals a regime culture that has prepared for war longer than many Iranians have been alive. Its rulers hide weapons beneath the earth while families remain exposed to the consequences.
No victory can redeem leaders who welcome national suffering as proof of their resolve.
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