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Iran’s ‘Missile City’: Underground Arsenal Exposes the Strategic Failure of Containment
Smoke rises after reported Iranian missile attacks, following United States and Israel strikes on Iran, as seen from Doha, Qatar, March 1, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has released propaganda footage of an underground complex it calls “Missile City,” a vast network of tunnels packed with suicide drones and ballistic missiles.
The video, complete with a ticking clock and endless rows of Shahed drones and rockets, was released days after the US-Israeli strike that eliminated Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Far from idle boasting, this imagery constitutes hard evidence of Tehran’s long-term strategic calculus: to build an asymmetric arsenal capable of exhausting Western and Gulf defenses, while advancing toward nuclear breakout.
The footage proves, once and for all, that Iran cannot be left alone to develop its weapons programs.
The operational logic on display in the video is ruthlessly efficient. Shahed drones cost roughly $16,000–$20,000 apiece, and require minimal production time. Western interceptors, by contrast, are prohibitively expensive: a single Patriot missile reaches $3.75 million, while THAAD systems can exceed $10 million per battery.
The United Arab Emirates has already spent up to $567 million to achieve a 92 percent interception rate against 541 Iranian projectiles. Analysts warn that at current expenditure rates, Gulf stockpiles could be depleted within mere days. Tehran, meanwhile, launches more than 2,500 drones daily, deliberately flooding air-defense systems in a classic “use it or lose it” attrition strategy. A handful of these low-cost weapons have already penetrated, striking the US Consulate in Dubai and oil facilities in Saudi Arabia. Israel has publicly conceded that Iran retains “significant capacity” to strike its territory.
This asymmetry is not accidental. Instead, it is the direct legacy of years of flawed Western policy.
The 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — known as the “Iran nuclear deal” — and subsequent sanctions relief funneled billions into the IRGC’s coffers. Those funds built the very tunnels now on display — facilities that complement, rather than compete with, Iran’s nuclear infrastructure.
While diplomats in Washington and Europe spoke of “containment” and “diplomatic engagement,” the regime invested in cheap, mass-produced delivery systems that serve as both conventional terror weapons and potential nuclear platforms. The giant portrait of Khamenei overlooking the arsenal in the video underscores continuity: regime succession has not altered strategic intent. The new leadership is already signaling that the death of one man changes nothing.
The broader regional implications are dire. Iran’s proxies — Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis — operate as forward-deployed extensions of this same doctrine. The underground city provides the logistical backbone for sustained campaigns that have already forced British nationals into desperate evacuations from Oman, and paralyzed commercial aviation across the Gulf. More than 11,000 flights canceled, 130,000 British citizens registered as stranded, and millions of dollars burned daily in defensive munitions illustrate the unsustainable cost of passive defense.
Each intercepted drone represents a strategic victory for Tehran: it drains the defender’s treasury while Iran’s own production lines continue unimpeded.
The video also demolishes the remaining arguments for strategic patience. The containment theory, advanced by the Obama administration and others, assumed that economic pressure and diplomacy could restrain Iranian adventurism. Instead, sanctions relief and nuclear negotiations bought Tehran the time and money to construct precisely the infrastructure now threatening the region.
Every drone swarm launched at US bases or Gulf ports is financed by the very restraint the West once praised as “prudent.” The Iranian regime has demonstrated that it will not negotiate away its core capabilities; it will merely hide them deeper underground.
The only viable policy response is offensive degradation of Iran’s military-industrial infrastructure. Limited strikes against missile-production facilities and underground command nodes are no longer optional; they are prerequisites for restoring deterrence. Washington and Jerusalem must reject any return to the JCPOA framework or similar half-measures. Instead, sustained pressure — targeted sanctions on IRGC-linked entities, accelerated support for Gulf air-defense replenishment, and, where necessary, direct kinetic action against “Missile City” facilities — must be paired with a clear message: the era of allowing the regime to arm itself in the shadows is over.
Iran’s underground arsenal is not a sign of strength but of strategic exposure. It reveals a regime that has gambled everything on the West’s reluctance to act decisively. The footage from “Missile City” is therefore not merely propaganda; it is a policy indictment. It proves that containment has failed, that diplomacy without enforcement is suicidal, and that the US, Israel, and their allies have no choice but to dismantle Tehran’s weapons empire before it achieves its ultimate objective. The survival of regional stability and the credibility of American power now depend on recognizing this reality and acting upon it — swiftly and without apology.
Amine Ayoub, a fellow at the Middle East Forum, is a policy analyst and writer based in Morocco. Follow him on X: @amineayoubx
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IDF Soldier from Connecticut Killed in Southern Lebanon Combat
Sgt. Moshe Yitzhak Hacohen Katz. Photo: courtesy.
i24 News – The Israel Defense Forces announced on Sunday morning the death of Sgt. Moshe Yitzhak Hacohen Katz, 22, originally from New Haven, Connecticut, who was killed during combat operations in southern Lebanon on Saturday.
According to the military, Katz was killed in a rocket attack targeting Israeli forces operating during efforts to expand a security zone in southern Lebanon. The IDF said the strike occurred overnight between Friday and Saturday, during a large-scale barrage aimed at units deployed in the area.
An initial military investigation found that one rocket directly hit an infantry unit from the 890th Battalion of the Paratroopers Brigade, killing Katz instantly. Three additional soldiers were wounded and are listed in moderate condition.
The IDF said the announcement of Katz’s death was delayed to ensure that all family members, including those in the United States, were properly notified.
The army also said that recent attacks have largely focused on the four IDF divisions operating in Lebanon. In the past 24 hours alone, approximately 250 rockets were launched toward Israeli positions, with 23 crossing into Israeli territory, according to military figures.
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AI-Generated Antisemitic Rabbi Racks Up Millions of Followers with Questionable Financial Advice
i24 News – An AI-generated character known as Rabbi Goldman has attracted millions of followers online by combining old antisemitic tropes with digital-age conspiracy theories. The avatar, presented as a caricature of a New York rabbi, plays off stereotypes of Jewish power and wealth while dispensing unsolicited “financial advice” and conspiracy-laden commentary about global elites.
In his videos, Rabbi Goldman claims that Jews have “known every secret for thousands of years,” weaving age-old prejudice into modern misinformation. Among his assertions: that the moon landing was faked, the US government will soon exert total control over its citizens, and billionaires stage yacht sinkings for insurance fraud—all allegedly foreknown by “the Jews.”
Before being removed on Sunday night, his Instagram account had racked up over 1.5 million followers. Yet the same page remains active on Facebook, which shares an owner with Instagram, with roughly 180,000 followers and thousands of interactions per post. The comments reveal an audience that is genuinely engaged with, and emboldened by, his vitriolic rhetoric.
Rabbi Goldman’s videos follow a simple formula designed to thrive in algorithm-driven ecosystems. They begin with a cryptic slogan implying secret knowledge or hidden wealth — invoking Jews as the keepers of these secrets — to draw viewers in and extend watch time, thus being featured on more people’s feeds. What follows is a cascade of AI-generated, factually dubious monologues, all culminating in a pitch: he can show you how to acquire the same “Jewish wisdom.”
That pitch leads to his website, where a manual titled How to Make and Invest Money sells for $9, and he claims it has been purchased by over 4,000 people. The real product, however, carries a fuller title — How to Make and Invest Money Like the Jews. The 62-page PDF amounts to generic, AI-spun financial advice labeled as “the Jewish method,” occasionally interspersed with random references to the Talmud. Just like the videos, it references how Jews have managed to be successful for thousands of years but offers little backup as to how that can translate to a real-world scenario.
Most of it plays off the stereotype of Jews being financially astute. But some lines, such as “Jews do not day trade… We buy the market — the entire market — and we hold it indefinitely,” remove the mask entirely.
Whether we like it or not, antisemitism thrives online—and platforms’ recent loosening of content restrictions under the banner of “free speech” has only amplified it. Social media has become an ideal environment for grifters to blend prejudice with profit. And that is, to their credit, what the creators of Rabbi Goldman have done.
They have clearly borrowed from the “manosphere” playbook—a cluster of influencers promoting hyper-masculine, materialistic lifestyles infused with misogyny and antisemitism. Like Andrew Tate and similar figures, Rabbi Goldman appeals to disaffected young men who feel alienated by the economy and society in which they live, eager to locate a scapegoat.
In Goldman’s case, the scapegoats are the elites and billionaires. But the framing of the Jews alongside the elites has, by proxy, made them the scapegoat too. By merging coded hatred with generic Instagram-style self-help language, the character transforms antisemitism into a marketable aesthetic.
So essentially, the creator of Rabbi Goldman has found a niche in an emerging market, playing off of antisemitism to sell cheaply produced slop to teenagers. Which is both entrepreneurial and morally awful. But the issue is that social media has bred the ground for this by rewarding shock content and letting antisemitism often go untouched. Even when they deleted his Instagram account, dozens of copycats popped up, including an absurdly ironic German-language version that uses the likeness of British politician Jeremy Corbyn.
And this is what happens when social media companies are reactive rather than proactive. They were chasing shadows after the account became so big. Instead, they need to cut it out at its source, be tougher on antisemitism, and be more vigilant with AI content.
And for social media users, it is hard to tell what’s real and what isn’t anymore. Just try not to get financial advice from an AI rabbi who thinks the moon landing was fake.
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Pezeshkian Clashes with IRGC Over Iran’s War Strategy and Economy
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian attends the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit 2025, in Tianjin, China, September 1, 2025. Iran’s Presidential website/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
i24 News – Deep divisions have reportedly emerged within Iran’s leadership as the war enters its fifth week, with tensions growing between President Masoud Pezeshkian and senior figures in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to a report by Iran International.
The report by Iran International claims Pezeshkian has sharply criticized the military escalation strategy led by IRGC commanders, warning of severe economic consequences if the conflict continues.
He is said to have cautioned that without a ceasefire, Iran’s economy could “completely collapse within three weeks to a month.”
According to the same report, Pezeshkian has called for the restoration of executive and administrative authority to the civilian government, a demand reportedly rejected by IRGC leadership, including Ahmad Vahidi.
Vahidi is said to have pushed back, blaming the current crisis on the government’s failure to implement structural reforms prior to the war and recent protest movements.
Meanwhile, signs of economic strain are becoming increasingly visible across Iran. Reports from several major cities describe ATMs that are empty, out of service, or inaccessible, alongside repeated disruptions to online banking systems.
Public sector employees have also reported delays in salaries and benefits over the past three months.