Iran shows underground ‘missile city’ as official claims war has wrecked US

Demonstrators burn a US flag during the annual rally commemorating the 1979 US embassy takeover outside the former embassy in Tehran, Iran (Vahid Salemi/AP)

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard displayed what it said was an underground “missile city” and new, unidentified surface-to-surface missiles.

State TV on Tuesday broadcast a heavily edited and partially blurred video showing the chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, General Ali Abdollahi, visiting the underground facility.

The video did not indicate when the visit took place, or give any details on the location.

Meanwhile, Iran’s secretary of the Supreme National Security Council Mohsen Rezaei has said that the war has already “wrecked” the US while secretary of state Marco Rubio says Iran is “bleeding economically”.

Mr Rezaei said in a post on X late on Monday that it was time for the US to “surrender” to the country’s terms, which include lifting sanctions and the blockade on its ports.

But Mr Rubio dismissed Iran’s terms as “absurd” and said no major military action is needed for now because Iran is struggling.

“It’s sad,” he said in Paris.

“The Iranian people deserve better than to be a third world country, which is where their leadership is taking them.”

Also on Tuesday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said that two vessels struck naval mines and caught fire while using an unauthorised route in the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian state media reported.

It said one of the vessels was a supertanker, and that the other was attempting to cross the strait under the protection of the US military.

The claims could not be independently verified.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, which monitors maritime security incidents, said in a separate statement that a tanker was struck on Tuesday by an unknown projectile north-east of Lima, Oman.

It said the crew were safe.

And Abu Dhabi National Oil Company said on Tuesday that one of its vessels was attacked in the United Arab Emirates’ territorial waters in the Persian Gulf.

The company did not identify the vessel or say who was behind the attack.

It was not immediately clear whether any of the reported incidents were related.

Iran on Tuesday denied it played a role in the cyberattack that raised the temperatures of refrigerators in hundreds of supermarkets across France last month.

The country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the French government’s accusations “baseless and self-serving”, suggesting the French government was instead trying to divert public opinion from its administrative shortcomings.

French authorities are seeking European Union sanctions against Iran after prosecutors on Monday determined the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard was behind the October 12 cyberattack, which affected about 700 of the country’s 10,000 supermarkets.