US signals to allies no immediate plans for Iran invasion

The Trump administration is signaling to allies that it has no immediate plans for a ground invasion of Iran, even as it deploys thousands of troops to the Middle East, people familiar with the matter said.

The people, who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations, cautioned that President Donald Trump could change his mind at any moment or go ahead with an attack. They said the troops could serve a variety of roles, including to help with evacuations of American citizens but also to create a sense of strategic ambiguity about US intentions.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday the US can achieve its objectives in Iran without the use of ground troops but their presence gives Trump options.


“The president has to be prepared for multiple contingencies, which I’m not going to discuss in the media,” Rubio told reporters. “We can achieve all of our objectives without ground troops. But we are always going to be prepared to give the president maximum optionality and maximum opportunity to adjust to contingencies should they emerge.”

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A White House official, who requested anonymity to describe internal thinking, said it’s the Pentagon’s job to develop plans to give the president optionality, and noted that Trump has previously said he has no plans to send ground troops anywhere at this time. The official said Iran will be hit harder than ever before if they fail to make a deal.

Recent days have seen the Defense Department deploy two Marine Expeditionary Units — about 5,000 troops in total — to the Middle East. The first of those two is set to arrive on Saturday while the second will need more time to get there. The department has also ordered the deployment of about 2,000 soldiers from the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division.

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Those movements have prompted speculation that Trump is gearing up for a ground attack. Possible scenarios include capturing Iran’s key oil export hub of Kharg Island, seizing Iranian nuclear material or occupying coastline near the Strait of Hormuz.

The US would need more troops for larger operations, and the prolonged timeline of those would extend past the four- to six-week range Trump set for the war. More than 150,000 US troops invaded Iraq at the start of the 2003 war as part of a coalition that was about twice that size.

On Thursday, Trump pushed back his deadline for Iran to agree to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face attacks on its power infrastructure, quelling speculation for now that the US was preparing to step up a campaign that began with US and Israeli strikes on Feb. 28.

Rubio met on Friday with Group of Seven representatives in France in a bid to get more support from European allies to secure Hormuz. He told his counterparts that the war would be over in weeks, not months, one of the people said. Asked Thursday if the strait can be opened without the use of ground troops, Rubio said he wouldn’t “speculate on what it will take.”

The Trump administration has previously suggested to Iran and its allies it would take one course of action, only to do the opposite later. In 2025, Trump ordered strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, even as the two sides promised to continue negotiations and as Trump repeatedly insisted Iran wanted to make a deal.

The US and Israel launched the latest round of strikes even after the parties agreeing to another round of talks over the country’s nuclear program.