Who is Professor Seyed Mohammad Marandi, the Iranian who says Israel will lose the war if the conflict escalates?

Tensions in the Middle East continue to escalate as the Israeli war in Gaza spreads into Lebanon. The conflict began a year ago after Hamas attacked settlements near the Palestinian enclave, killing nearly 1,200 and taking captive over 250. The ensuing conflict has claimed the lives of over 40,000 Gazans according to the enclave’s health ministry.

Israeli forces invaded southern Lebanon after launching an all-out offensive against Hezbollah, that has resulted in 1,000 dead and 6,000 injured according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. First with exploding pagers and walkie-talkies and then an ariel bombardment of their bases and residences of leaders of the group designated a foreign terrorist organization by the US. Iran, which backs Hezbollah, launched a new missile strike against Israel in response to which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said was “a big mistake” and vowed that Iran “will pay for it.”

While it is relatively easy for the Western press to get people in Israel, from civilians to those in government, publicly on the record, that isn’t always the case in Iran. However, there is one individual who is all too glad to speak to foreign media outlets from the US and the UK and has been doing so for several years.

Who is Professor Seyed Mohammad Marandi, the Iranian who says Israel will lose the war if the conflict escalates?

Once again, Professor Seyed Mohammad Marandi made the rounds giving interviews after the latest flare-up between Israel and Iran. And once again the mouthpiece for the Islamic Republic, although he says he considers himself a critic of the government, told the BBC, Sky News and other outlets that Israel will lose this conflict, as well as the US if it enters the fray.

So, who is Seyed Mohammad Marandi? He’s the head of North American Studies at the University of Tehran and teaches English Literature and Orientalism. He was also an adviser to the Iranian nuclear negotiations in Vienna, although he received some flak for his involvement from his own countrymen.

That was due to his complacent comments about possible outcomes were the talks to fail and also because he is a US citizen. However, he says that he doesn’t have a Social Security number.

The “go-to guy” for media outlets was born in the United States in 1966, and grew up in an upscale neighborhood of Dayton, Ohio, in the 1970s, according to PBS. His father is Alireza Marandi who was Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s family doctor. Marandi was 13 when his family moved back to Iran after his father was appointed Health Minister, who was also for a time a conservative member of parliament representing Tehran.

Thus, that is why the professor is able to speak such fluent English with Western media, but he says that he couldn’t speak Farsi when he first arrived in Iran. As well, that explains his passion for NFL football, his favorite team is the Dallas Cowboys.

Marandi attended Alavi High school, where most Iranian hardliners studied, according to Iran International. When he was 16 he joined the paramilitary volunteer militia Basij to fight in the Iran-Iraq war. He was injured four times, two as a result of chemical attacks.

Despite considering himself a critic of the Iranian government he often gives interviews defending the policies of hardliners. His interviews typically have him telling the press that Israel will regret any retaliatory actions with bellicose and belligerent statements saying that Iran has many more powerful weapons at its disposal and that the latest strike is just the “tip of the iceberg.”

He also takes the opportunity to attack Israel calling it a “Nazi regime,” “apartheid regime” and “ethno-supremacist regime” to name a few. Marandi also doesn’t consider Israel to be a state, saying that it is just a colony. Those are just some of the reasons Honest Reporting says that he is an anti-Israel extremist and meets the internationally recognized IHRA working definition of antisemitism.