AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
President Trump says Iran's military has been totally destroyed by U.S. and Israeli airstrikes. The White House also says Iran is running out of missiles and launchers. But that's not what U.S. intelligence said last month in a report noting Iran's missile capabilities are far more robust than what the administration has said in public. Sina Azodi teaches Middle East politics at George Washington University and is the author of "Iran And The Bomb: The United States, Iran And The Nuclear Question." Professor, welcome to the program.
SINA AZODI: Thank you for having me, Ayesha. Good to be with you.
RASCOE: So that CIA analysis says Iran has maintained about 70% of their prewar stockpiles, and CNN last week reported that satellite images show Iran has repaired the damage to the majority of its underground missile facilities. What does that tell you about Iran's strategy?
AZODI: Well, it tells us that the Iranians were preparing for this eventuality. And specifically in - since the June 2025, they had made plans, their war plans. They knew how the U.S. will fight the conflict. And in fact, inside those missile cities that are dug under the tunnels and inside the mountains, they had placed engineers, technical people, in the anticipation that the U.S. and the Israelis would destroy the entrances to the tunnels. So this is why they've been able to quickly retrieve the missiles and the launchers that they have. And I think really the president's announcements are for his own political purposes of saying that, you know, he won the war and Iranians have been decimated.
RASCOE: Well, how has Iran been able to do this? I mean, they've had decades of sanctions. How are they maintaining these stockpiles of missiles and drones?
AZODI: Well, they've been investing on their drones and missile programs for decades now. Iran has been under sanctions, as you mentioned. It cannot procure conventional arms from the market. And what they did was - from the experience that they learned during the Iran-Iraq War from 1980 to 1988 - they began investing on missiles and drones. They're rather cheap. They're not that sophisticated, but they're very easy to produce. The drones that Iran manufactures - and apparently, everybody is reverse engineering them, including the United States - they cost $20,000. And with those $20,000 drones, they go after very expensive radar domes, and that's why they've been quite successful.
RASCOE: Well, what about - we've been hearing about Iran's so-called missile cities. Can you tell us a bit more about that?
AZODI: Well, the plans that Iranians had from the beginning - and this applied actually to their nuclear program as well - that the Americans and the Israelis potentially would try to destroy their nuclear or missile program. And Iran is a mountainous country, and this is - and they are the best place to hide their missiles. It would be very difficult, rather, to destroy their missile arsenal with conventional bombs. And so they expanded them over the years. They've been really bragging about their missiles. Every once in a while, they show them on TV, that they have these missile cities ready. And they work quite effectively in this conflict.
RASCOE: Has the U.S. underestimated Iran's ability to strike back? And if so, how badly?
AZODI: I believe it did. I think the Trump administration was deceived by the illusions of quick victory. We've seen public reports that General Dan Caine had warned President Trump that Iranians could shut down the Strait of Hormuz in response to a U.S. attack, and he had dismissed it. He had said that Iran will surrender much faster than that, which - as we know, that surrender never arrived. So my guess is that, yes, the U.S. really didn't anticipate the Iranian response, their resolve to fight. And this is why, I think, we are where we are now, because he was expecting a quick victory which never happened.
RASCOE: Well, you know, this war is going kind of, you know, starts and stops, and then they have these kind of very shaky ceasefires. Is the on-and-off nature of this conflict helping Iran to be able to rebuild?
AZODI: Yes, absolutely. But again, I do want to emphasize that they had been planning for this eventuality. They knew that the U.S. and the Israelis will try to target those missile cities. And this is why they have the technical place, they have the equipment in place. And it's now rather difficult - if you have, you know, the expertise - to dig these missiles out.
RASCOE: That's Sina Azodi of George Washington University. Thank you so much for speaking with us today.
AZODI: Thank you for having me, Ayesha. Good to be with you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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