Brig. Gen. Mohammad Reza Naqdi, a top advisor to the commander of the IRGC, told PBS News Hour in a rare interview with a Western media outlet on Aug. 11 that Iran is building missiles faster than it is firing them off. “As for our missiles, the Americans and the Zionists always want to count our missiles,” he said. “First of all, the number of missiles we manufacture every day is more than the number we launch. In a country this vast, we can make them wherever we want.” He added: “We have various ways to manufacture them securely. Rest assured, even if this war lasts for years, until the last day, Iran’s rockets will be launched.”
If an Aug. 13 story in The Jerusalem Post is to be believed, Naqdi’s claim was not an idle boast. “Israeli defense officials have been shocked by the speed of Iran’s recovery following the early 2026 war,” the Post reported. Four months after the first phase of the war ended in April, “the Post understands that the IDF is now seeing a stunningly speedy turnaround that it did not expect, and not in merely one or another specific area, but in many areas, including the ballistic missile threat.”
