TEHRAN -- An Iranian military spokesman said Saturday that the deployment of elite army ground units along the country’s borders denied the United States any opportunity for a ground invasion, as a senior security official dismissed President Donald Trump’s repeated claims of victory over Iran as “fantasies” that have “outrun” reality.
Brigadier General Muhammad Akraminia, spokesman for Iran’s Army Ground Force, said the elite forces and brigades “denied the Americans the opportunity to carry out a ground invasion, and today they are still standing at their positions with morale.” 
He said the ground forces’ role alongside the Air Force, Air Defense Force, and Navy deserves greater attention, noting their actions denied the enemy opportunities to act.
Separately, Major General Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, wrote on X that “after one failure after another, the worst president in American history just keeps talking—and talking—and now his words have even outrun his own fantasies.” 
“You can win every day in your own imagination. But reality is shaped by Iran—by its people, its soldiers, and its missiles,” Rezaei said, addressing Trump known his typical delusional bluster of having destroyed Iran’s military for dozens of times now.
Trump, in an interview with Time magazine published Thursday, said “annihilating Iran” was possible and that it would “create peace in the world.” 
Asked directly whether he would follow through on his threat to annihilate Iran, Trump told Time: “Yeah, I would do that. It’s possible”. 
When pressed on how a “president of peace” could call for the annihilation of an entire people, Trump replied: “Because by annihilating Iran, we’ve created peace in the world. With Iran, I don’t think you could ever have peace”.
Trump also told Time it was “possible” he would escalate bombing campaigns after the November midterm elections, and rejected an Iranian ceasefire proposal conveyed through Qatari mediators, saying it was “not enough”.
Iran’s acting Defense Minister, Brigadier General Majid Ebn-e-Reza, dismissed Trump’s claims as “imaginary war dramas” that cannot conceal U.S. exhaustion. 
“Do not hide the confusion in the White House behind imaginary war dramas,” he wrote on X. “Public pressure, the exhaustion of U.S. forces, and the rising costs of war have thrown your calculations into disarray”.
Despite Washington’s claims that Iranian armed forces have been weakened, Iran’s military has continued to down intruding aircraft and launch missiles and drones against enemy positions since July.