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A senior Iranian official has claimed that Tehran spent decades preparing for and welcoming a US ground attack, as fresh explosions rocked the region on the eighth day of renewed US-Iran attacks.
Iranian American academic Seyed Mohammad Marandi, known as the regime’s “mouthpiece”, also claimed that Tehran had launched a “new missile” by decentralizing its arsenal and burying it underground to counter frequent US air campaigns.
“The Americans are planning an invasion. I’m not saying it will be necessary. I’m not saying it will be necessary in the next few days. But they have plans for an invasion,” Marandi, a former adviser to Iran’s nuclear negotiating team, said in an interview with political analyst Glenn Deisen.
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Iranian American academic Seyed Mohammad Marandi, often identified as the regime’s “mouthpiece”, said Tehran had recently launched a new missile. (Akila Jayawardene/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
“Whether they carry them out or not, we’ll see. But as you pointed out, the focus of the Iranian attacks has been on Bahrain and Kuwait, and that’s because that’s where most of the U.S. assets are positioned for a ground attack,” Deisen said.
Marandi’s comments came as the conflict spread across western and southern Iran by Saturday.
Iran also launched missile and drone salvos targeting US-linked facilities in Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain.
Jordanian officials confirmed they intercepted 10 missiles early Saturday, while Kuwaiti officials reported casualties and serious damage to a domestic power and desalination plant.
In response, American airstrikes struck bridges, a major road tunnel, observation posts, and fortified underground weapons storage facilities.
Several explosions also occurred in Khorramabad city of Lorestan province of Iran. According to reports, Iranian state media claimed that the explosions were caused by US missiles launched from regional bases in Kuwait.
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Satellite image shows the entrance to the second tunnel and supporting buildings at the Khorramabad missile complex in Iran’s Lorestan province before the March airstrike. (Vantor/Unknown)
According to Washington’s Nuclear Threat Initiative, Khorramabad is home to 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.
The complex was damaged by Israeli airstrikes during the 2025 campaign targeting Tehran’s military and nuclear infrastructure.
Marandi also described what he described as a flexible, underground network at the heart of Tehran’s military strategy.
“When Iran wants to launch missiles or drones, they don’t just put them inside buildings or in a pile somewhere. They take out whatever they need,” Marandi said. “They fire at them, and then they go back to their bases, or they take out different missiles and drones, spread them out in different areas, separate them from each other so that the Americans can’t bomb them in large numbers.”
He further said, “Everything in Iran has been dispersed and taken underground.”
The latest tension between the US and Iran has ended a recently signed memorandum of understanding (MOU) to establish a 60-day ceasefire and facilitate nuclear talks.
The main issue centers on control of the Strait of Hormuz, with the strategic waterway becoming the main battlefield of the conflict.
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Marandi claimed that the IRCG has introduced a new missile into the war. (Morteza Nicoubzal/Nurfoto via Getty Images)
President Donald Trump ordered renewed airstrikes within weeks of the ceasefire, or MOU, taking effect, and on July 14, he raised the possibility of launching a ground campaign.
According to Marandi, Iran’s military command is actively relying on the ground scenario and has since introduced a new weapon into the theater.
“Iran has that advantage and, of course, it has been accumulating missiles and drones for decades and is still doing so,” Marandi claimed.
“I think they introduced a new missile into the war last night,” he said of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRCG).
“The Iranians are hitting very hard, and they are ready for a land war. They have been preparing for decades.”
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Marandi concluded by claiming that Tehran views US ground action as the most direct path to ending the conflict on its own terms.
“The Iranians – we discussed this on your show earlier during the 40-day war – when I said the Iranians really wanted the Americans to do a land invasion, and the same is true now, because they felt that if there was a land invasion, they would win,” he told DeSean.
