Seyed Mohammad Marandi

Seyed Mohammad Marandi (born 14 May 1966) is an Iranian-American academic, intellectual and political analyst. He is closely linked to the Iranian government and has been described as a "mouthpiece" of the Iranian government by Iran International, and as "one of the staunchest defenders of the Islamic Republic in English-language media" by Iranwire.

Early Life and Education

Marandi was born in Richmond, Virginia, to Alireza Marandi, who would later serve as Iran's Health Minister and personal physician to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. He spent the first 13 years of his life in the United States before his family moved to Iran following the 1979 revolution. At 13, he volunteered to fight in the Iran-Iraq War, during which he has said he survived two Iraqi chemical weapons attacks; he served with the IRGC from 1980 to 1988.

He is a graduate of the University of Tehran and earned his PhD at the University of Birmingham, UK, with a thesis titled "Lord Byron, His Critics and Orientalism," described as a response to Edward Said's Orientalism.

Career

Marandi headed the North American Studies program at the University of Tehran and currently serves as a professor of English Literature and Orientalism there. He is a frequent commentator on international news networks including Channel 4, Sky News, PBS, ABC, CGTN, CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera, and RT, and has contributed opinion pieces to Al Jazeera, Middle East Eye, and Tehran Times. He has served as an adviser to Iran's nuclear negotiations team in Vienna.

Views and Controversies

Following the 2022 stabbing of Salman Rushdie, Marandi suggested a connection between the attack and US claims of an Iranian plot to assassinate former national security adviser John Bolton. In October 2024, his remarks on BBC Radio 4's Today programme describing Israel as committing a "holocaust in Gaza" and practicing "ethno-supremacism" drew criticism from the Jewish Leadership Council and historian Simon Schama as antisemitic; the BBC later acknowledged its presenter should have challenged his language more during the interview.

Written Works

His works include "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, Springer, 2015) and "The Khamenei Doctrine: Iran's Leader on Diplomacy, Foreign Policy and International Relations" (with Raffaele Mauriello, in Islam in International Relations, Routledge, 2018).