Mohammad Marandi

Seyed Mohammad Marandi was born on 14 May 1966 in Richmond, Virginia. He is the son of Alireza Marandi, who would later become Iran's Health Minister and doctor of the Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei.^[1] Marandi spent the first 13 years of his life in the United States. Following the 1979 Iranian revolution, his family moved to Iran. He volunteered to fight in the Iran–Iraq War during which he said he survived two Iraqi chemical weapons attacks.^[6]

Marandi is a graduate of the University of Tehran and Birmingham University (UK), where his PhD thesis was entitled "Lord Byron, his critics and Orientalism", described as a "response to Edward Said's Orientalism".^{[7][according to whom?]}

Marandi was the head of the North American Studies program at the University of Tehran;^[6] he is currently a professor of English Literature and Orientalism at the university.^[8]

Marandi has appeared as a political and social commentator on international news networks such as Channel 4,^[9] Sky News,^[10][11] PBS, ABC, CGTN, CNN,^[12] BBC,^[13] Al Jazeera,^[14] and RT. He has also contributed opinion pieces to publications such as Al Jazeera,^[15] Middle East Eye,^[8] and Tehran Times.^[16]

He is an adviser to the Iranian nuclear negotiations team in Vienna.^[17] Marandi has close links to the Iranian government.^[1][2][3] Iran International describes him as a "mouthpiece" of the Iranian government.^[1]

Following the 2022 stabbing of Salman Rushdie, Marandi wrote:

I won't be shedding tears for a writer who spouts endless hatred & contempt for Muslims & Islam. But is it a coincidence that just when we are on the verge of revitalising the nuclear agreement, America makes claims about an attempted assassination of Bolton and then this happens?.^[18][19]

Marandi's statement referred to the United States Department of Justice's allegation that Iran had planned to assassinate US national security advisor John Bolton in 2020.^[20]

Marandi has been noted for not being overly concerned about UN resolutions against Iran. According to a tweet by the Twitter account of reformist daily Shargh posted on 28 December 2021, Marandi stated:

What will happen if the UN resolutions against Iran are revived? We attach no value to the other side's ultimatums, because nothing is going to happen to us even if they pull out of the JCPOA and activate the trigger mechanism.^[21][22]

On 1 October 2024, Marandi said on BBC's Today programme, that the Israeli government was a "genocidal regime" that was committing a "holocaust in Gaza", "believes in ethno-supremacism".^[23] The Jewish Leadership Council and Simon Schama criticized the comments as antisemitic, while CAMERA described Marandi's comments as "racist rant and redundant claims of 'genocide' ".^[23] The BBC noted that its presenter did challenge Marandi during the interview, but acknowledged that it should have challenged Marandi's language further throughout the interview.^[23]

• "Oppressors and Oppressed Reconsidered: A Shi‘itologic Perspective on the Islamic Republic of Iran and Hezbollah’s Outlook on International Relations" (with Raffaele Mauriello) in Islam and International Relations: Contributions to Theory and Practice, Springer, 2015, pp. 50–71.
• "The Khamenei Doctrine: Iran's Leader on Diplomacy, Foreign Policy and International Relations" (with Raffaele Mauriello) in Islam in International Relations: Politics and Paradigms, Routledge, 2018, pp. 18–38.

• Axis Sally
• Hanoi Hannah
• Lord Haw-Haw
• Tokyo Rose
• Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf
• Moussa Ibrahim