Iran taunts Trump, saying he ought to rename Operation Epic Fury as Epic Fear as a result of he will not put boots on the bottom: ‘War is set on the sphere, not in tweets’

Iran has published a video taunting the US President, saying he should rename the war from Operation Epic Fury to Operation Epic Fear because America won’t put boots on the ground.  

In footage published by Tehran’s semi-official Mehr News Agency, Ebrahim Zolfaghari, the spokesman for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, delivered ‘a message to the President of the United States’.

Speaking in English, he mocks Donald Trump for his use of social media, telling the president: ‘The outcome of war cannot be determined by tweets, the result of war is determined on the field.’

He continues: ‘The very place where you and your forces do not dare approach and you can only talk about it in your tweets.’

Wearing military clothing, Zolfaghari ends his message with a mocking smile, telling Trump: ‘It is better to name this war as Epic Fear, instead of Epic Fury.’

The video appears to be a jibe at the president’s prolific use social media to issue commentary on the ongoing Israeli-US war on Tehran, which began on February 28 and triggered Iran’s retaliatory strikes across the Gulf region. 

On his Truth Social platform, Trump recently declared that ‘Iran is being decimated‘ and said the country was ‘militarily ineffective and weak’.

He accused the regime of using artificial intelligence as a ‘disinformation weapon’ to misrepresent its support and wartime success, when in fact it is being ‘annihilated by the day’.

Iran’s deputy foreign minister recently warned the US that it faces another Vietnam if it puts boots on the ground in the war.

‘Just read what happened in Vietnam,’ Saeed Khatibzadeh, speaking in his office in Tehran, told Sky News.

‘They understand those that dragged them into this war can drag them also into a quagmire,’ he added, referring to the fate of American troops.

Trump has not ruled ‌out sending ⁠US ground soldiers into Iran. His Republicans, who have slim majorities in both houses of Congress, have almost unanimously backed his strategy on Tehran, with only a handful expressing doubt about the war.

Democratic US senators have expressed alarm about the conflict, however, saying they are worried that Trump could deploy US ground forces and noting the high risks ​given Russian support for Tehran’s military. 

‘We seem to be on a ​path toward deploying American troops on the ground in Iran to accomplish any of the ​potential objectives here,’ Senator Richard Blumenthal said following a classified briefing from administration officials.

‘Literally, Russia ​seems to be aiding ​our enemy actively and ⁠intensively with intelligence and perhaps with other means and China also may be assisting Iran,’ he added.

‘So the American people deserve to know ​much more than this administration has told them about the cost ​of the war, ⁠the danger to our sons and daughters in uniform and the potential for further escalation and widening of this war.’

At the end of last week, Trump ordered a Marine amphibious unit – which includes 5,000 soldiers and sailors – from Japan to the Middle East, in a sign Washington might be expanding its operation.

The president may consider deploying troops in order to reopen the all-important Strait of Hormuz – a channel for 20 per cent of the world’s oil and gas that has been effectively shut down by Iran since the war began.

The de facto closure of the waterway for most of the world’s tanker traffic has proved disastrous for global energy and trade flows, triggering the largest oil supply shock in history and surging global oil prices.

One option to deal with the Iranian missiles and drones targetting oil tankers in the maritime choke point would be to destroy the stockpiles at source – through a ground invasion of southern Iran.

Another option is an escort operation involving US warships in conjunction with allied navies, travelling through the strait alongside oil tankers to clear mines and defend against aerial Iranian attacks. 

Trump has called on European allies and China to help secure the crucial waterway by sending naval escorts to the strait, but so far nations have been reluctant to commit any vessels due to safety risks and fear of escalating the conflict.

At a press conference yesterday, President Trump slammed Sir Keir Starmer over his response to the conflict, saying he’s ‘not happy’ with the UK after the prime minister said it would not be drawn into a ‘wider war’ over Iran.

Trump said he was ‘very surprised’ by the lack of support he was getting from the UK over reopening the Strait of Hormuz, telling reporters:

‘I was very surprised with the United Kingdom, because United Kingdom two weeks ago, I said, why don’t you send some ships over? And he really didn’t want to do it.

‘I said, you don’t want to do it? We’ve been with you. You’re our oldest ally, and we spend a lot of money on, you know, Nato and all of these things to protect you.

‘We’re protecting them. We’re working with them on Ukraine. Ukraine’s thousands of miles away, separated by a vast ocean. We don’t have to do that, but we did it. Well, Biden did it. I mean, I have to be honest with you, Biden got taken to the cleaners, but we worked with them in Ukraine.’

He added that he had told Starmer ‘it would be really helpful if you’d send over a couple of ships and if you have some minesweepers, which they do, be very helpful’.

‘And the prime minister… he says, well, I’d like to ask my team.

‘I said, you don’t have to worry about a team. You don’t have a team. You’re the prime minister. You can make a decision… So it’s very disappointing.’

Naval escorts through the Strait of Hormuz will not ‘100 per cent guarantee’ the safety of ships, however, according to the head of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO).

Military assistance was ‘not a long-term or sustainable solution’ to opening up the strait, Arsenio Dominguez told the Financial Times.

‘We are collateral damage of a conflict when the root causes have nothing to do with shipping,’ Dominguez told the paper.

On Tuesday, Israel’s ​Defence Minister ‌Israel Katz announced that ⁠Iran’s ​security ​chief Ali Larijani had ​been ​killed in an ‌Israeli ⁠strike.

Katz said Larijani and Gholamreza Soleimani – the commander of Iran’s Basij forces – have joined the late Ayatollah Khamenei in the ‘depths of hell’ following targeted overnight airstrikes.

The attack on Larijani comes four days after he marched alongside thousands of Iranians at a Quds Day rally in Tehran where he criticised Trump during a live interview.