End of Middle East war seems further than ever as Pentagon prepares ground operations, Iran increases attacks

The Pentagon is preparing for weeks of ground operations in Iran, U.S. officials said, as thousands of American soldiers and marines arrive in the Middle East for what could become a dangerous new phase of the war if President Donald Trump chooses to escalate tensions.

Officials have said any potential ground operation would not amount to a full-scale invasion and could instead include raids by a mix of Special Operations forces and conventional infantry units.

All participants spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss highly sensitive military plans that have been in development for weeks.

Such a mission could expose U.S. personnel to a range of threats, including Iranian drones and missiles, ground fire and improvised explosive devices.

It was unclear Saturday whether Mr. Trump would approve all, some or none of the Pentagon’s plans.

It is clear that invasion plans are underway; On Saturday, US Central Command confirmed that the amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli had arrived in the region.

He leads a unit of 3,500 sailors and marines and transports transport and attack fighter aircraft.

The Trump administration has vacillated in recent days between declaring the war over and threatening to escalate it.

While the president has signaled his desire to negotiate an end to the conflict, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt warned that if the regime in Tehran does not end its nuclear ambitions and threats against the United States and its allies, Mr. Trump is “ready to unleash hell” on them.

When asked about the mass movement of troops, Ms. Leavitt tried to downplay the potential for an invasion.

“It is the Pentagon’s duty to prepare to provide the Commander in Chief with maximum options,” he said.

“This does not mean that the President has made a decision,” he said.

Talks within the administration last month touched on Iran’s possible seizure of Kharg Island, a major oil export hub in the Persian Gulf, and raids on other coastal areas near the Strait of Hormuz to find and destroy weapons that could target commercial and military shipping, officials said.

Those goals would likely take “weeks, not months” to complete, one person said.

Another put the potential timeline at “a few months.”

The Pentagon did not respond to requests for comment Sunday.

Speaking in the Oval Office on March 20, Mr. Trump told reporters: “I’m not putting troops anywhere. If that were the case, I certainly wouldn’t tell you, but I’m not putting troops.”

This “will not be a protracted conflict,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters in France on Friday after a meeting of U.S. allies concerned about the growing economic consequences of the war.

He frequently repeated the administration’s vague assessment that the operation was ahead of schedule and said the United States could “achieve all of our goals without ground troops.”

Mr. Rubio’s comments followed a report on the news site Axios that said the Pentagon was preparing a “final blow” against Iran that could include both ground forces and a massive bombing campaign.

Axios and the Wall Street Journal also reported in recent days that the administration is considering sending 10,000 more ground troops to the Middle East in addition to those already in the region.

According to recent polls, the prospect of deploying troops on Iranian soil faces serious opposition among Americans. According to the survey, 62 percent strongly oppose the use of ground troops in Iran, while only 12 percent support the idea.

Michael Eisenstadt, director of the Military and Security Studies Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said any mission to take Kharg Island carries significant dangers.

He said it might be safer for U.S. forces to lay mines around the island and use it as a pressure point to force Iran to remove the mines it has laid in the Strait of Hormuz.

“I wouldn’t want to be in that little place where Iran has the ability to launch a barrage of drones and perhaps artillery,” said Mr. Eisenstadt, a retired military officer who served in Iraq, Israel and Jordan.

He said a smarter land mission might be for U.S. troops to “clear” some of Iran’s coastal military installations that pose a threat to commercial and military shipping.

Some are near the Strait of Hormuz, some are likely further up the coast, he said.

“I think it is better if the troops are not in any one place for a long time,” Mr. Eisenstadt said.

“If they’re moving and ganking in and out, agility is part of your force protection.”

In recent weeks, the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, consisting of approximately 2,200 US sailors and marines, was ordered to be sent to the region.

A retired senior military official familiar with the unit’s operations said it has significant capability to carry out such missions but faces logistical limitations on how long it can fight without additional supplies.

The retired officer said Kharg Island is Iran’s most important territory in the Persian Gulf, but U.S. military officials have examined other Iranian islands near the Strait of Hormuz as potential areas for U.S. operations.

The retired officer said Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps would likely dig in and fight, and those fighters could use Kharg Island’s valuable oil infrastructure as part of their defense against U.S. forces.

Another former senior Defense official familiar with the US military’s ground offensive plans against Iran said they were comprehensive.

“We looked at it. It was a war game,” the official said. “This isn’t last-minute planning.”

Regional powers were to meet in Pakistan on Sunday to discuss how to end conflicts in the Middle East.

He said he would send senior diplomats of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Egypt to Islamabad for talks.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that he and Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian had “extensive discussions” on regional hostilities.

The US and Israel continue to hit Iran, which targets Israel and neighboring Gulf Arab countries with retaliatory attacks. More than 3000 people have already been killed.

Recent deaths included three journalists killed in Israeli attacks in Lebanon.

Hezbollah’s al-Manar TV said its longtime reporter Ali Shoeib was among the dead. The Israeli military said it targeted Shoeib, accusing him of being a Hezbollah intelligence agent.

Beirut-based pan-Arab Al-Mayadeen TV said reporter Fatima Ftouni was killed in the same airstrike in the southern Jezzine region, along with her brother Mohammed, a video journalist. He was on air with a live report before the strike.

Senior officials in Lebanon condemned the strike, with President Joseph Aoun calling it “a flagrant crime that violates all laws and agreements protecting journalists.”

Hezbollah fired about 250 projectiles from Lebanon on Saturday and Sunday, according to an Israeli military official.

Early Sunday, one Israeli soldier was killed and three others were wounded in fighting in southern Lebanon, the army said. His name was stated to be Sergeant Moshe Yitzchak Hacohen Katz, originally from Connecticut, USA.

This brings the total to five Israeli soldiers killed in southern Lebanon since the conflict with Hezbollah reignited on March 2.

Israel was again attacked by Iran and the radar at Kuwait International Airport was damaged. Two workers were injured when the world’s largest aluminum smelter was hit in Bahrain. Aluminum Bahrain said the smelter suffered serious damage.

Early Sunday, intercepts and drone activity were heard for hours in Erbil, the capital of the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq, including drones shot down while trying to target the US consulate and nearby bases.

Journalists in the region reported that they saw continuous loud explosions and at least one unmanned aerial vehicle heading towards American facilities, on one of the most intense days of attacks since the beginning of the war.