From an Interview on Truthwire show with Professor Seyed Mohamad Marandi, based in Iran.
The geopolitical standoff between Iran and the United States has entered a perilous new phase, marked by mutual accusations of ceasefire violations, a high-stakes economic siege, and the looming threat of a major military escalation. According to Professor Seyed Mohammed Marandi, the current crisis is not a spontaneous flare-up but instead, the continuation of an unprovoked war initiated by the U.S.-Israeli axis, which has now devolved into a complex battle of attrition. While Western narratives have often portrayed Iran as the aggressor, Professor Marandi argues that the Islamic Republic has successfully leveraged its domestic unity and strategic patience to expose what he calls the “weakness and lying” of the American empire. The central flashpoint remains the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran has selectively restricted shipping to hostile nations, challenging the U.S.-led “Project Freedom” and redefining the rules of engagement in one of the world’s most vital maritime chokepoints.
Professor Marandi contends that the war, which began with an unprovoked American-Israeli assault, saw an early symbolic victory for Tehran when Washington accepted the Iranian ten-point plan as a framework for negotiations after 39 days of conflict. However, he asserts that the subsequent ceasefire was stillborn, violated immediately by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s carpet bombing of civilian neighborhoods in Lebanon. In response, Iran tightened its restrictions on the Strait of Hormuz, allowing passage only to ships from non-hostile nations like Pakistan and India, while blocking vessels linked to five Gulf countries—Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, and Bahrain—that Tehran accuses of participating in the war. This calibrated closure debunks the Western myth of a total Hormuz blockade, instead revealing a precise retaliatory strategy aimed at preserving sovereignty, punishing regimes complicit with U.S. of Epstein contingent, while maintaining regional economic flows.
The economic warfare has since intensified into a mutual siege. When the U.S. imposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports—a direct violation of the ceasefire—Iran doubled down, refusing to clear outgoing ships from the five hostile Gulf states. The result, was a paradoxical embargo where the U.S. has effectively blockaded the entire world from accessing those nations’ exports through the Strait. Despite the endless PR from the Trump administration, talking about how Iran’s air force is “gone”, an attempted American naval operation to force a breakthrough failed, highlighting the limits of U.S. military pressure. Meanwhile, the human toll of the conflict escalates through relentless airstrikes on Iranian schools, hospitals, pharmaceutical factories, and residential blocks, with U.S. senators publicly gloating about imagined starvation in Iran. Despite this, Marandi reports that Iranian society remains remarkably united, with nightly mass gatherings and a popular resilience that he attributes to the country’s public support, which persists even in non-religious neighborhoods.
A critical dimension of the crisis is the fragile position of the Gulf monarchies. Professor Marandi describes these states—many of which he dismisses as artificial constructs with tiny citizen populations ruling over massive foreign workforces—as vulnerable to collapse with Craig agreeing and reminding everyone that they’re ripe for regime change. Even in Kuwait, many citizens reportedly support Iranian strikes against their own regime, viewing their rulers as “obedient family regimes” that enrich Western elites through kickbacks on unusable weapons. The coming summer heat and humidity could become a strategic weapon: if Iran strikes critical infrastructure like power plants in the Gulf, Marandi argues, the luxurious lifestyles of the elites and the presence of U.S. troops would become impossible. Bahrain is singled out as the most likely candidate for revolution or collapse, especially given Saudi Arabia’s reluctance to fully cooperate with American escalation, fearing retaliation against its remaining oil exports.
The broader ideological framing of the conflict, transcends the Middle East. Marandi describes a cleric in Tehran telling crowds that Iran is fighting “on behalf of the entire global majority” held hostage by the United States—citing children in Cuba and hostages in Venezuela alongside Palestinians and Lebanese civilians. This rhetoric underscores Tehran’s demand for not only reparations and sanctions-lifting but also the complete withdrawal of U.S. forces from the Persian Gulf region and recognition of Iran’s sovereign control over the Strait of Hormuz. While Western leaders call these demands “unacceptable,” they are eminently reasonable given the war’s origins: the first double tap U.S. strike that killed 168 elementary school children, which most accounts conclude was intentional given the fact that many of the victims were the children of IRGC members.
Addressing the role of great powers, Professor Marandi firmly rejects the notion that Iran’s resilience is solely a function of Chinese or Russian support. While maintaining good relations with both, he emphasizes that Iran won the war based on its own capabilities—decades of preparation, underground missile and drone cities, and domestic manufacturing. In fact, he reveals that many in Moscow and Beijing privately doubted Iran would succeed, only to be “pleasantly surprised” by its performance. The North-South Transport Corridor, a long-neglected project, was only developed after both Russia and Iran faced Western sanctions, illustrating how U.S. policy has inadvertently catalyzed Eurasian integration. Thus, the West is isolating itself through its own genocidal policies and economic warfare against its supposed adversaries.
We also touched on the state of internet connectivity and cultural perceptions in Iran, especially since this issue is being used in the United States, to portray Iran as authoritarian. During the war, Iran shut down international connections to prevent U.S. and Israeli forces from using digital data for targeting and double-tap strikes—a tactic learned from previous conflicts. Since the ceasefire, internet access has partially returned, though VPNs remain expensive and connections are unstable. Addressing the infamous “Death to America” chants, Marandi clarifies that they are non-literal slogans analogous to “Yankee go home,” directed at the American empire and its policies of genocide and slaughter—not at ordinary American citizens.
As both Washington and Tehran brace for a potential major assault—possibly timed around Trump’s diplomatic maneuvers—the stalemate continues, with Iran betting on its domestic unity and the summer heat to outlast an empire whose political class, Marandi argues, remains captured by an Epstein class oligarchy that prioritizes Israeli interests over American lives.
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