A senior Iranian figure has claimed that Tehran has spent years bracing for a possible U.S. ground assault — and would be ready to confront one — as another wave of explosions hit the region on the eighth day of renewed American-Iranian attacks.
Seyed Mohammad Marandi, an Iranian American academic often described by critics as a regime “mouthpiece,” said Iran had recently fired a “new missile” and argued that the country has dispersed and buried much of its weapons stockpile far below ground to survive prolonged U.S. airstrikes.
“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, who previously advised Iran’s nuclear negotiating team, said during an interview with political analyst Glenn Diesen.
Seyed Mohammad Marandi, an Iranian American academic frequently described as a regime “mouthpiece,” claimed Tehran had recently used a new missile. (Akila Jayawardena/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Diesen added that whether Washington follows through remains uncertain, while pointing to Iran’s reported focus on targets in Bahrain and Kuwait, where he said many U.S. assets tied to a potential ground operation are positioned.
Marandi’s remarks came as the fighting widened across western and southern Iran ahead of Saturday, intensifying concerns that the U.S.-Iran conflict could spread further through the region.
Iran also fired missiles and launched drones toward facilities linked to the United States in Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain, according to the reports.
In Jordan, officials said air defenses intercepted 10 missiles early Saturday, while Kuwaiti authorities reported casualties and heavy damage at a local power and desalination facility.
In response, U.S. airstrikes struck bridges, a key road tunnel, surveillance outposts and reinforced underground weapons storage facilities.
Multiple explosions also rocked the city of Khorramabad in Iran’s Lorestan province. Iranian state media claimed the blasts were caused by U.S. missiles launched from regional bases in Kuwait, according to reports.
Satellite image shows the second tunnel entrance and support buildings at the Khorramabad missile complex in Lorestan province, Iran, before March airstrikes. (Vantor/Unknown)
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Khorramabad houses the Imam Ali Missile Base, one of Tehran’s primary underground silo facilities engineered to store and deploy liquid-fueled Shahab-3 medium-range ballistic missiles, according to Washington’s Nuclear Threat Initiative.
The complex was damaged by Israeli airstrikes during the 2025 campaign targeting Tehran’s military and nuclear infrastructure.
Marandi also detailed what he described as a resilient, subterranean network central to Tehran’s military strategy.
“When Iran wants to fire missiles or drones, they don’t put them inside buildings or in piles somewhere. They take out whatever they need,” Marandi said. “They fire them, and then they go back to their bases, or they take out different missiles and drones, spread them out in different areas, put them apart from one another so that the Americans cannot bomb them in large numbers.”
He added: “Everything has been spread out in Iran and placed underground.”
The latest escalation between the U.S. and Iran ended a recently signed memorandum of understanding (MOU) to establish a 60-day ceasefire and facilitate nuclear talks.
The key issue has centered on control of the Strait of Hormuz, with the strategic waterway turning into the conflict’s main battleground.
Marandi claimed that the IRCG introduced a new missile to the war. (Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
President Donald Trump ordered renewed airstrikes within weeks of the truce, or MOU, being implemented, and on July 14, he floated the possibility of launching a ground campaign.
According to Marandi, Iran’s military command is actively counting on a ground scenario and has since introduced a new weapon to the theater.
“Iran has that advantage, and of course, it has been accumulating missiles and drones for decades now, and it is doing so even now,” Marandi claimed.
“They, I think, last night introduced a new missile to the war,” he said of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRCG).
“The Iranians are hitting very hard, and they are prepared for a land war. They’ve been preparing for decades.”
Marandi concluded by claiming that Tehran views a U.S. ground operation as the most direct path to ending the conflict on its own terms.
“The Iranians — we discussed this during the 40-day war before on your show — when I said that the Iranians actually want the Americans to carry out a land invasion, and the same is true now, because they felt that if there was a land invasion, they would win,” he told Diesen.
