A former Iranian foreign minister publicly called for a ground assault on a U.S. military base in the region with the explicit goal of capturing around 100 American personnel and bringing them back to Iran as prisoners, according to Iran International.
Manouchehr Mottaki, who served as Iran's foreign minister from 2005 to 2010 and now sits in Iran's parliament, made the proposal amid the ongoing escalation between Tehran and Washington. "My proposal is that we launch a ground attack on one of the US bases in the region, capture 100 Americans and bring them to Iran," Mottaki said.
The remark lands amid a broader pattern of Iranian officials floating the capture of American troops as a form of leverage. Iran International reported separately that commentators aligned with the Revolutionary Guard have discussed how any U.S. attempt to seize Iranian islands in the Persian Gulf could feed directly into a long-standing IRGC strategy built around capturing American troops.
The comments follow weeks of similar rhetoric from senior figures across Iran's political and military establishment. Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Larijani warned before his death that Iranian forces were "waiting" for American troops to enter the country, saying they were "ready to disgrace" U.S. personnel by killing and capturing them by the thousands, according to Al Jazeera. Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf issued a similar warning, saying Iranian forces were waiting for American ground troops in order to "set them on fire," and Gholamreza Mesbahi-Moghadam of the Expediency Council separately warned that any U.S. move against Iranian islands would amount to "collective suicide" for American forces.
Mottaki's proposal comes against the backdrop of a rapidly deteriorating security picture in the Gulf. Iran International's live coverage on Wednesday reported that Iran's army said it would respond after a U.S. strike on a barracks in southeastern Iran killed seven military personnel, and that Iran had filed a formal complaint with the United Nations documenting 42 alleged violations by Washington of the memorandum of understanding between the two countries. India and New Zealand separately summoned senior Iranian diplomats this week over the escalation and attacks on commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
Neither the Pentagon nor the White House has commented publicly on Mottaki's remarks.
