Amid reports that the Pentagon is preparing for weeks-long ground operations, Iran has warned the US that its forces were “waiting for the Americans to enter.”
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, in a letter marking 30 days since the outbreak of the war, said that the US is talking about negotiations in public, but secretly it is planning a ground attack.
"They don't pay attention to the fact that our forces are waiting for the Americans to enter. Our launches continue, our missiles will not stop, and our determination has only grown stronger," he warned.
“We are in a major world war, and must prepare ourselves for a long, difficult and complex path to reach the summit. With the support of our people, we can restore our rights, punish the US and make it regret its actions so that it does not dare to attack Iran again. We will not emerge from this war except in victory. We will not allow the enemies to leave the war without demonstrating our strength and turning this war into a lesson for every aggressor,” he said in the letter.
Another senior Iranian official warned that any US move to seize Iranian islands would cause heavy losses for American forces. Gholamreza Mesbahi-Moghadam, a member of the Expediency Council, said sending troops to Iranian islands would amount to “collective suicide” and said US forces would face a decisive response if they entered them. He also said Iran should perhaps have used the Strait of Hormuz years earlier as a strategic gateway to prevent entry by countries hostile to the Islamic Republic.
The Iranian reactions come amid reports that the US is preparing for a ground invasion, but any operations would not involve a full-scale invasion but would instead focus on special operations missions and specific infantry ground operations. Due to the high risk that these operations would represent for American soldiers, it was unclear as of Saturday night if Trump would approve of such an operation, according to The Jerusalem Post.