The Pentagon is preparing for weeks of ground operations in Iran, US officials told The Washington Post on Saturday night, as thousands of American soldiers and Marines arrive in the Middle East.
Any potential ground operation would fall short of a full-scale invasion and could instead involve raids by a mixture of Special Operations forces and conventional infantry troops, said the officials, who spoke to the Post on the condition of anonymity.
Such a mission could expose US personnel to an array of threats, including Iranian drones and missiles, ground fire and improvised explosives. It was unclear Saturday whether Trump would approve all, some or none of the Pentagon’s plans.
The Trump administration in recent days has vacillated between declaring that the war is winding down and threatening to amplify it.
Trump last Saturday gave Iran an ultimatum of 48 hours to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face strikes on its power plants.
He has since extended that ultimatum twice to allow for negotiations with Iran, most recently on Thursday, when he gave Iran ten additional days.
Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, said on Friday that Washington expects Iran to respond to its 15-point proposal to end the war, adding he believes the sides will hold talks this week.
“My definition of real negotiating would be right here, and we don’t live until we’re done. And we’ve offered that, we think there will be meetings this week. We’re certainly hopeful for it. The President wants a peace deal," Witkoff said at the FII Priority summit in Miami.
“We have a 15-point deal on the table that the Iranians have had for a bit of time. We expect an answer from them and it would solve it all," he stated.
The deal, Witkoff continued, “would solve the enrichment question, which is we can't have enrichment there today. It would solve the material question. They have close to 10,000 kilograms of enriched material stockpiled, which they have to give up. It would solve the stockpiling question and the oversight question. All of these are red lines for us, but we’re not looking to see the dissolution of the Iranian people."
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt warned Tuesday that if the regime in Tehran does not end its nuclear ambitions and cease its threats against the United States and its allies, Trump is “prepared to unleash hell" against them.
In a statement responding to The Washington Post report on Saturday, Leavitt said, “It’s the job of the Pentagon to make preparations in order to give the Commander in Chief maximum optionality. It does not mean the President has made a decision."
Discussions within the administration over the past month have touched upon the possible seizure of Kharg Island, a key Iranian oil export hub in the Persian Gulf, and raids into other coastal areas near the Strait of Hormuz to find and destroy weapons that can target commercial and military shipping, officials told the newspaper.
One person said that the objectives under consideration would probably take “weeks, not months" to complete. Another put the potential timeline at “a couple of months."
The Pentagon did not respond Saturday to requests for comment.