The spokesperson for Iran's Armed Forces, Ebrahim Zolfaqari, affirmed this Sunday that Iranian forces are "waiting" for a hypothetical ground offensive by the United States on Iranian soil, an incursion that, he warned, would end with American military personnel turned into "shark bait" in the Persian Gulf.
"The American commanders and military personnel will be fodder for the sharks of the Persian Gulf," Zolfaqari has warned in a speech retransmitted by Iranian public television, IRIB.
The military spokesman has recalled "the threats of (Donald) Trump of ground operations and occupation of any part of Iran's territory, obviously a chimera", and has stressed that "the warriors of Islam have been waiting a long time for something like this to demonstrate that aggression and occupation will only bring humiliating captures, mutilations and disappearance of the aggressor".
In his speech, Zolfaqari has maintained that "the president of the United States has shown that he only understands the language of force" and has urged the occupant of the White House to "study the history of Iran". "We are counting the minutes to annihilate your army", the military spokesman stressed.
That same Sunday, the president of the Iranian Parliament, Mohamad Baqer Qalibaf, has expressed his conviction that the recent gestures of rapprochement on the part of Washington would be nothing more than a maneuver to cover up the preparations for a ground offensive, and has insisted that the Armed Forces of Iran are ready to respond to an operation of this type.
"The enemy openly sends messages of negotiation and dialogue, but secretly plans a ground attack. It ignores that our men await the arrival of American soldiers to attack them and punish their regional allies forever," Qalifab, former commander of the Revolutionary Guard and the highest authority of Iran's ultraconservative Legislature, has stated.