← Pentagon Ground Plans 2026

US considers Iran operation as Pakistan hosts regional peace talks focused on Hormuz

On March 29, 2026, The Jerusalem Post published US considers Iran operation as Pakistan hosts regional peace talks focused on Hormuz. Correspondent Amichai Stein, writing with Reuters, reported that unnamed US officials were describing American ground forces moving into the Middle East for a possible operation against Iran. An American family should care because the people in those units would be US Marines, paratroopers, and infantry. The paper presents this as planning, not as an order the president had given.

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 claim is that officials were preparing a possible ground operation. The officials are unnamed. A same-day Washington Post lead, opened for this page, describes preparations measured in weeks; this Jerusalem Post article says months. The accounts differ on how long, and agree on what: an American ground operation in Iran.

What the article says

Stein and Reuters write that a US official told the Post the military was expected, by early the next week, to have enough ground forces in the Middle East to support a potential ground operation against Iran. Another US official, asked whether such an operation would be authorized, said that all options were on the table and that everything depended on the president's decision.

The article says US officials had indicated, in closed-door discussions, that if Iran did not take a diplomatic path there would be escalation, including a possible ground operation. It attributes that to two sources familiar with the talks. It says thousands of Marines and paratroopers were arriving in the US Central Command area in the coming days, and that the administration was considering sending another 10,000 infantry troops to the region.

Among options the article says were presented to the president: seize Iran's Kharg oil island, and raid coastal areas near the Strait of Hormuz so Iran could not hit ships there. Senior US officials told the Post that any such operation would take months, not weeks, and would fall short of a full-scale ground invasion of Iran.

The rest of the article is about diplomacy. It says Iran had not answered a 15-point proposal from President Donald Trump. One source called the talks serious but very slow. Another said there were no formal negotiations, only indirect messages. Both sources said the chance of a deal was low. Pakistan hosted Turkey, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia to talk about reopening the Strait of Hormuz. The article says Iran warned the United States against a ground attack. It does not quote that warning.

"By early next week, the US military is expected to deploy sufficient ground forces to the Middle East to support a potential ground operation against Iran, a US official told The Jerusalem Post."

The Jerusalem Post, March 29, 2026, reporting what an unnamed US official told the paper.

What other reporting adds

The Washington Post, in its reporter's words. The Post's military reporter, Dan Lamothe, posted the scoop: "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 should President Donald Trump choose to escalate." (Dan Lamothe on X, 29 March 2026; research capture: twitter/t51__v603.md). A digest quoting the Post the next day gave the durations its officials used: one said "weeks, not months," another "a couple of months" (@ZackEiseman on X, 30 March 2026; research capture: twitter/t49__v587.md). So "weeks" versus "months" was already a disagreement among the Post's own sources, not only between the two newspapers.

Not yet authorized. A news site summarizing the same weekend's reports wrote that "senior U.S. officials stress that no ground operation has been formally authorized by President Trump." (Scoop Empire, 29 March 2026; research capture: twitter/t51__v601.md).

What it shows

The Jerusalem Post reported that senior officials expected a ground operation of months, with 10,000 more infantry under consideration and Kharg Island among the options put to the president. Officials stressed only that it would not be a full-scale invasion. That is the ladder the section documents: raids and islands first, held by Americans, while the diplomacy on the same page stalled. See Pentagon Ground Plans 2026 and Kharg Island and the Uranium Raid.

Check it yourself

• The Jerusalem Post article is at https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-891553.
• Dan Lamothe's scoop post, The Washington Post reporter, 29 March 2026.
• The same weekend, The Washington Post published Pentagon prepares for weeks of ground operations in Iran. The part visible without a subscription says the Pentagon is preparing for weeks of ground operations in Iran, according to US officials, as thousands of American soldiers and Marines arrive in the Middle East, if President Trump chooses to escalate. Its deck says that if he approves the plans, the new phase could be more dangerous to US troops than the first four weeks. That visible lead agrees that plans exist and are not yet approved. It does not agree with this article's "months, not weeks."
• Research captures: twitter/t49__v587.md, twitter/t51__v601.md, twitter/t51__v603.md.

Status: Donald Trump is alive.

Last Updated: 2026-09-26