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טראמפ שוקל שליחת כוחות למצבורי הנפט באיראן: "צעד רגיש פוליטית" — Trump weighs sending forces to Iran's oil hub: "a politically sensitive step"
On March 19, 2026, the Israeli news site Mako published טראמפ שוקל שליחת כוחות למצבורי הנפט באיראן: "צעד רגיש פוליטית". The page is in Hebrew. It shows the time 19.03.26, 11:47. No byline appears on the page that loaded. The article says President Donald Trump was considering American ground forces near Iran's coast, and even an action on Kharg Island, an Iranian oil-export island. An American family should care because that is a scenario in which US soldiers go onto Iranian territory. The article says no decision to send them had been made.
Background for a new reader. The United States and Israel began bombing Iran on 28 February 2026; Washington calls its part Operation Epic Fury. Through March the argument in Washington was whether to add ground troops, meaning American soldiers physically inside Iran, to what had been an air and sea war. Israeli outlets, writing in Hebrew, Russian, Spanish, French and English, followed that argument closely and often passed on American reports to their readers. This page is one of those reports.
Evidence rating: MODERATE. Mako is relaying Reuters, which cited one American official and three people familiar with the talks. This page also opened the Reuters story itself.
What the article says
Mako says Trump was considering stationing ground forces near Iran's coasts, and even an operation on Kharg Island. It says about 90 percent of Iran's oil exports leave from that island. It attributes the report to Reuters, earlier that Thursday, based on one American official and three people familiar with the details.
נשיא ארצות הברית דונלד טראמפ שוקל תרחיש של הצבת כוחות קרקעיים סמוך לחופי איראן, ואפילו פעולה באי ח'ארג, שממנו יוצאים כ-90% מיצוא הנפט של המדינה.
Mako, March 19, 2026. In English, that sentence says Trump is considering stationing ground forces near Iran's coasts, and even an operation on Kharg Island, from which about 90 percent of the country's oil exports leave.
Mako says American officials stress that no decision to send ground forces had been made, and that this was only one of several options. It quotes a White House source saying the president is keeping all options open. It says the talks about adding forces were running alongside movements already underway, including an amphibious force with more than 2,000 Marines. Marines are a US force that can land from the sea. Mako says those Marines were arriving. It says the added forces could widen Trump's choices, including around shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow passage oil tankers use to leave the Persian Gulf.
Mako says putting ground forces into Iranian territory is considered politically sensitive. It gives two reasons: public opposition to the war, and Trump's past promises to avoid a military entanglement in the Middle East. The words "a politically sensitive step" appear in the headline in quotation marks. The body does not tie those words to a named speaker. The lower part of the page is about Israeli airstrikes inside Iran.
The Reuters article Mako is describing was opened for this page. Reuters dates the story March 18, 2026, and updated it March 19. Reuters says one US official and three people familiar with the matter described plans to reinforce the Middle East operation with thousands of US troops. Reuters says options included securing the Strait of Hormuz, mostly by air and naval forces, and that securing the strait could also mean putting US troops on Iran's shoreline. Reuters says the administration had also discussed sending ground forces to Kharg Island, and that one official called that operation very risky because Iran could reach the island with missiles and drones. Reuters says the sources did not believe a ground deployment anywhere in Iran was imminent.
There has been no decision to send ground troops at this time, but President Trump wisely keeps all options at his disposal.
A White House official, as quoted by Reuters, March 18, 2026. Reuters also says an Amphibious Ready Group was due in the Middle East the next week, with a Marine unit of more than 2,000 Marines, and that the reinforcement talks went beyond that arrival. Mako's wording is that the amphibious force was already arriving. Reuters says "next week." Both say more than 2,000 Marines. Reuters says Trump told reporters he was not putting troops anywhere, but that if he were, he would not tell journalists.
What other reporting and posts add
- Trump on Kharg, in his own words. About ten days after this article, Trump told the Financial Times, as a 30 March 2026 news digest quoted him, that his favourite thing is to "take the oil in Iran... Maybe we take Kharg Island, maybe we don't. We have a lot of options... It would also mean we had to be there [in Kharg Island] for a while." The Financial Times page was not opened. Digest on X. (capture: twitter/t49__v587.md)
- A senator pushes for it. Sen. Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, posted, as a 19 March 2026 post quotes him: "He who controls Kharg Island, controls the destiny of this war. Semper Fi." The same post says Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas argued on CNN that an island assault would not count as "boots on the ground." Graham's own post was not returned; this is a secondhand quote. Post quoting Graham. (capture: twitter/t49__v579.md)
- A critic says the White House held back. Edward Luttwak, a military strategist writing in UnHerd on 29 July 2026, said the White House "remains infected by its 'no boots on the ground' syndrome" and that Trump "refuses to risk deploying even a small number of troops to the desert islands in the Persian Gulf." That is evidence, months later, that no island landing had happened. UnHerd on X. (capture: twitter/t50__v593.md)
- "A logistics package waiting for a signature." An analyst's 2 April 2026 summary: "No boots on Iranian soil. But the Kharg Island option is no longer a concept. It is a logistics package waiting for a signature." That is one commentator's reading, not an official statement. Post. (capture: twitter/t50__v590.md)
What it shows
The Israeli site gave its readers both halves together. Trump was weighing American ground forces on Iran's coast and on Kharg Island, and more than 2,000 Marines were on their way. The White House line was "no decision to send ground troops at this time," and Trump told reporters that if he were putting troops anywhere he would not tell them.
Two weeks later an analyst summed it up: "the Kharg Island option is no longer a concept. It is a logistics package waiting for a signature." Mako also named why the step is kept quiet: public opposition to the war and Trump's past promises to avoid a Middle East entanglement. See No Boots on the Ground and Kharg Island and the Uranium Raid.
Check it yourself
Research captures: twitter/t49__v587.md, twitter/t49__v579.md, twitter/t50__v593.md, twitter/t50__v590.md
Last Updated: 2026-09-26