March 29, 2026
Iran’s parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf warned on Sunday that while the United States publicly signals diplomacy it is secretly preparing for a ground attack, according to state news agency IRNA. He said Iran is united and ready to respond, adding that its forces await any arriving US troops and that Tehran could punish the United States and its regional allies to secure what it describes as legitimate rights. Qalibaf described the situation as a major global war at a critical stage and called for national unity.
US media reporting indicates the Pentagon has been drawing up plans for possible ground operations in Iran for weeks, though it remains unclear whether President Donald Trump would approve a deployment given his prior promises to avoid new large-scale foreign ground wars. Senior US officials have repeatedly said a wide-scale invasion is not planned; Senator Marco Rubio has said Washington believes it can meet its objectives via air strikes without deploying boots on the ground, while acknowledging some troop movements are intended to provide strategic flexibility.
Thousands of US troops have been redeployed to the Middle East in recent weeks, including marines from the 31st and 11th expeditionary units and paratroopers from the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division. Reports have suggested as many as 10,000 additional US infantry could be staged in the Gulf. Those forces are far smaller and less heavily equipped than the armies used in the 1991 and 2003 Gulf Wars, lacking comparable armoured and logistical support, but they could be used for limited raids on key installations. One potential target frequently cited is Kharg Island, a strategic oil-export hub in the northern Persian Gulf; President Trump has previously said he would consider striking or taking the island if US personnel were attacked.
The wider regional conflict remains active. Iran has continued to fire missiles toward Israel and to carry out strikes in the Gulf. Air defences intercepted missiles and drones in several countries overnight. Kuwait reported responding to missile and drone attacks, Bahrain said two people were injured in an Iranian strike on aluminium facilities, and witnesses in Tehran reported heavy strikes late Saturday. Security sources told Reuters that air defences shot down a drone near the residence of Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani in Erbil.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi condemned an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon that killed three journalists, calling it a targeted assassination and a violation of international law. The Israel Defense Forces said it had targeted one of the journalists, alleging he was part of a Hezbollah intelligence unit.
Separately, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps warned it could target US university campuses in the Middle East after saying US and Israeli strikes had destroyed two Iranian universities. The IRGC urged staff and students to stay at least one kilometre from campuses unless Washington issued an official condemnation by a stated deadline. Several US institutions operate regional branches in the Gulf.
Pakistan is hosting talks in Islamabad among the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt aimed at de-escalation and diplomacy. Islamabad has been acting as a diplomatic intermediary between Iran and the United States, with Pakistani officials emphasising dialogue as the only viable path to stability.
On the battlefield, the Israeli military said a soldier from the Paratroopers Brigade was killed in southern Lebanon, the fifth Israeli troop fatality there since fighting with Hezbollah escalated in early March. Yemen’s Houthi rebels have claimed recent attacks on Israel, raising concerns that the conflict could widen further.