While thousands of Marines are arriving in the Middle East, senior military officials are considering deploying an Army paratrooper division to the region as the Iran war stretches into week four.
Top officials are weighing whether the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division should be deployed, the New York Times reported on Monday.
That would provide the military with 3,000 soldiers for a possible invasion of Kharg Island – where 90 percent of Iran’s oil exports are processed.
Sources told the Times that no orders have yet been given by Donald Trump, who lashed out at a reporter earlier Monday who asked about boots on the ground.
‘Well, let me ask you this. If you were in my position and I asked you that question, do you really believe I’d give you that? It’s a crazy question,’ the President responded.
The San Diego Union-Tribune reported about 2,500 Marines aboard three ships were deployed last week to the Middle East.
The Times reported that a different Marine unit, the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, based in Japan, which was headed toward the region, could also be used to seize Kharg Island.
The 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit will arrive Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported, the deadline Trump gave the Islamic Regime to get a peace deal across the line.
President Donald Trump is being given options to deploy Army paratroopers to the Middle East, while thousands of Marines are already headed to the region
The 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, photographed here in February, are headed to the Middle East and are expected to arrive on Friday
Kharg Island’s airfield was damaged in recent US strikes, with former US commanders telling the paper that it was more likely the Pentagon would first bring in the Marines, who have combat engineers who could rebuild it.
After that, the 82nd Airborne could jump in.
The behind-the-scenes military planning comes as Trump has teased ‘a complete and total resolution of our hostilities in the Middle East.’
The President said he would halt strikes on Iranian energy infrastructure for five days as envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner try to get a deal done with an unnamed Iranian official.
Trump told reporters as he departed Florida for Tennessee that, ‘we’re dealing with a man who I believe is the most respected and the leader.’
It was not, however, the new Supreme Leader of Iran, Mojtaba Khamenei, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s son, who has not been seen since the strikes that killed his father on February 28.
‘We have not heard from the son,’ Trump told reporters. ‘We don’t know if he’s living.’
Axios reported Monday that Kushner and Witkoff were in touch with the speaker of the Iranian parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, but it’s unclear if Ghalibaf is the individual Trump was referring to.
The 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit is captured conducting routine operations last week. The group is headed to the Middle East and is expected to arrive Friday
Iranian officials slapped down the President’s claim of peace negotiations, with an Iranian official telling the Fars News Agency, which is aligned with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, that there is ‘no direct or indirect contact with Trump.’
The prospect of peace had markets moving upward on Monday, with investors favoring de-escalation in the region over a prolonged Iranian conflict.
Despite the troop movement, the President previously said he wouldn’t put US boots on the ground in Iran.
‘No, I’m not putting troops anywhere,’ Trump said Thursday, while hosting Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in the Oval Office.
‘If I were, I certainly wouldn’t tell you,’ he then told the reporter who asked him.
