Mohammad Reza Naqdi

And the Iranians are making sure everyone knows it.

General Mohammad Reza Naqdi, an advisor to the commander of the Revolutionary Guard, said that any American ground operation would drag American forces into a brutal asymmetric war with very heavy casualties and large numbers of American soldiers taken prisoner.

Taken prisoner, guys.

Think about what that means for an American president.

Tehran answered over the weekend, and the answer goes beyond rhetoric.

On Sunday, IRGC Deputy Coordinator Mohammad Reza Naqdi told a rally in Sari, according to the Tehran Times, that Iran would meet the mother of all bombs with the father of bombs.

He named American tech, AI, and oil companies in the region as being at risk.

And here's the personnel move.

Losing Hormuz While Rubio was declaring Hormuz open for business, Tehran has been pushing back on that idea pretty damn hard.

Mohammad Reza Naqdi, a senior adviser to the IRGC's commander-in-chief, insisted that Iran remained in total and complete control of Hormuz, thank you very much, and dismissed any claims to the contrary as propaganda from the Great Satan.

Clearly, both of these guys cannot be telling the truth.

So what's going on? Well, in recent weeks, there does seem to be a genuine loosening of the stranglehold that Iran has over the Strait.

Still, there's a long way between where we are now and a new agreement.

And there remains a significant hardliner presence opposed to any concessions at all, including anything short of full tolls in Hormuz.

Mohammad Reza Naqdi, a senior IRGC advisor, has even floated the possibility of prolonging this conflict until Trump leaves office in 2029.

And as we've previously covered here on Warfronts, Iran has been gearing up to make sure its domestic repression forces are ready for any new protests that may break out.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking in Greece, said Iran has lost complete control of the straits, that the Straits of Hormuz are open, and that Iran's economy is in total and complete freefall.

The same day, a Revolutionary Guard advisor, Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi, said Iran has full control of the strait and will soon block what he called illegal routes.

The measurable facts sit between those statements.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center has logged nine attacks in the strait this month, half what it recorded for the strait and the wider Gulf in all of September.

He stated that crippling sanctions caused Iran's economy to be in total and complete freefall, and added that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.

In Iran, an advisor to the Revolutionary Guards commander, Mohammad Reza Naqdi, told a news agency that transit routes in the Strait of Hormuz deemed illegal will soon be closed.

He said the Strait of Hormuz is closed, and the armed forces of Iran have full control over it.

In Lebanon, sources with direct knowledge of the transfer said Hezbollah received two hundred million dollars from Iran.