Speaking to Times Radio, he claimed Iran is preparing for the “next stage” of the conflict and could even launch an attack 10 times the size of Saturday’s strikes.

He said: “The Iranians sent a large number of very inexpensive and old Iranian drones…the Israelis, and the Americans and the British and the French all went out and used their most expensive and modern technology to down those drones.

“Iran knew those drones were going to be downed anyway, but they were decoys to make Israel and its allies in genocide use up all of their new technology and to expose their capabilities.

“Iran didn’t use any of its new drones. Iran used a large number of old models of missiles that are inexpensive. Again these were decoys.

“Iran then deployed more advanced missies, and these broke right through the shield and struck targets in the south and north of Israel.”

He added: “If Iran wants to carry out a major strike on the Israeli regime, the attack would be ten-fold. Iran has large numbers of underground missile bases.

“They have been preparing themselves…the Iranians are effectively preparing themselves for the next stage.”

Experts in the West disagree with this assessment.

Sidharth Kaushal of the Royal United Services Institute think tank, told the Guardian that Iran’s strike was intended to cause damage, and the fact most of its missiles were stopped is damaging to Tehran’s military credibility.

He told the Guardian: “Look at the size and scale of this latest attack – this was not a salutary move. It was designed to inflict real damage, but the fact that it didn’t is damaging to Iran’s credibility.”