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US said mulling 'final blow' options if Iran talks fail, including sending troops to seize key assets

On 26 March 2026, Lazar Berman and Nava Freiberg published US said mulling 'final blow' options if Iran talks fail, including sending troops to seize key assets in The Times of Israel, a major Israeli news site in English. An American family should care because the article says that if talks fail, US options include putting American ground troops on Iranian islands and, separately, sending troops inland to seize enriched uranium. Enriched uranium is uranium processed past the level used in an ordinary power plant. The article also says the president had not chosen. It says paratroopers and Marines were already moving toward the Gulf.

Background for new readers: On 28 February 2026 the United States and Israel began a joint air war on Iran. The Pentagon calls its part Operation Epic Fury; Israel calls its part Operation Roaring Lion. It came eight months after a shorter war in June 2025, when US bombers hit Iran's nuclear sites at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. The question running through this section is whether the air war turns into American soldiers fighting on Iranian soil. This article is filed under Pentagon Ground Plans 2026; the full article index lists every article on this shelf.

Evidence rating: MODERATE. The rating covers the Axios report, carried by The Times of Israel, of "final blow" options that could put American ground troops on Iranian soil. Axios cited two US officials and two other sources, who said the President had not yet chosen. The forces moving toward the Gulf, the 82nd Airborne and 5,000 Marines on the USS Tripoli, are reported by NBC in the same article.

What the article says​

The article says Israel and the United States opened their campaign against Iran on 28 February 2026. Berman and Freiberg then report an Axios story from Thursday, 26 March. Axios, they write, cited two US officials and two sources with knowledge of the matter. Those sources described options for a "final blow" if talks failed and Iran kept disrupting shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow lane for Gulf oil. The article says the strike would be meant to strengthen the American hand in any further talks, and possibly to let Trump end the war with what the article calls an ostensible victory image. The account said that blow could include a major bombing effort and American ground troops on Iranian soil.

The officials told Axios, according to the article, that four options were under discussion.

The first was seizing or blockading Kharg Island, which the article calls Iran's main oil-export hub. The second was taking Larak Island in the Strait of Hormuz, described as a place with Iranian bases, radars, and small boats that can attack civilian ships. The third was invading Abu Musa, an island in the eastern Persian Gulf that the article says Iran holds and the United Arab Emirates claims. The fourth was not a landing at all. It was blocking or taking control of ships carrying Iranian oil.

Separately, the article says Axios reported plans under consideration for US troops to seize a 450-kilogram stockpile of highly enriched uranium, believed to sit under nuclear sites already bombed. The alternative in that account was more airstrikes so Iran could not reach the material. The sources said Trump had not decided.

The article then cites CNN. Sources familiar with US intelligence told CNN, it says, that Iran was laying traps, moving personnel, and adding air defenses on Kharg, including shoulder-fired missiles that can hit low-flying aircraft. A source familiar with the planning said a significant number of troops would be needed. The island was put at about a third the size of Manhattan. US officials and military experts, the article says CNN was told, warned of a serious risk of casualties.

On forces already moving, the article cites NBC. It says the United States had deployed 1,000 paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division, a US Army unit trained to jump from aircraft, and 5,000 Marines toward the Gulf. The Marines were traveling on the USS Tripoli, a Navy ship built to launch a landing force. The article says that ship could matter in an attack on Kharg.

Iran's parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, wrote on X on Wednesday, the article reports, that "based on some intelligence reports, Iran's enemies are preparing to occupy one of the Iranian islands with support from one of the regional states." He did not name the state. He said Iranian forces were watching, and that if the other side moved, "all the vital infrastructure of that regional state will be targeted with relentless, unceasing attacks."

The article also reaches back to 1988. It says Trump told The Guardian then that if he were president and Iran fired at an American, "I'd do a number on Kharg Island. I'd go in and take it." That is a quote from an old interview, as the article presents it. In the same story, Trump's 26 March message on his Truth Social network told Iran to "get serious soon" on talks, and said that once a point passed there would be "NO TURNING BACK." Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, the article says, answered that exchanging messages through other countries was not negotiation, and that Iran's policy was to keep fighting and not to negotiate.

The US is working on options for a "final blow" to Iran that could see American ground troops deployed on Iranian soil, as well as a major bombing effort.

The Times of Israel, 26 March 2026, citing an Axios report that named two US officials and two other sources. Those sources said Trump had not chosen.

What other reporting adds​

The Axios scoop, as shared. Annmarie Hordern (@annmarie) and the account Osint613 both posted the Axios line the same day: the Pentagon was developing options for a "final blow" that "could include the use of ground forces and a massive bombing campaign," attributed to two US officials and two sources (research captures: twitter/t51__v601.md, twitter/t51__v603.md, twitter/t51__v604.md).

A warning in reply. An X user, Victor Bassey, replying to the Axios post the same day, warned that a ground campaign would be "extraordinarily costly" (research capture: twitter/t51__v603.md). A few days later the White House line, as relayed by X's chatbot Grok rather than from a transcript, was that preparations were meant to give the commander in chief "maximum optionality" and "It does not mean the president has made a decision" (research captures: twitter/t51__v602.md, twitter/t51__v611.md).

Kharg's value. The Telegraph, citing multiple US officials who spoke to Reuters, described Kharg Island as "responsible for 90 per cent of Iran's oil exports" (The Telegraph, 20 March 2026; research capture: twitter/t13__v147.md). That is why seizing it is on the list: it would squeeze Iran's income without marching on a city.

What it shows​

This article names the targets. Kharg Island, Larak Island, Abu Musa, and a 450-kilogram uranium stockpile under bombed nuclear sites: every one of them is a job for soldiers on the ground, and the forces that do that job, paratroopers and a Marine landing force on an amphibious assault ship, were already moving toward the Gulf. CNN's sources warned that Kharg would need "a significant number of troops" and carried a serious risk of casualties. An Israeli newspaper laid the options out for its readers on the same day the White House was still speaking of talks. See Pentagon Ground Plans 2026 and Kharg Island and the Uranium Raid.

Check it yourself​

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

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