The Defense Department is weighing whether to send 10,000 additional ground troops to the Middle East as President Donald Trump’s war with Iran rages on.
The move would give the president more military options amid talks of negotiations with Iran and increasingly disastrous polling numbers. It was first reported by The Wall Street Journal on Thursday.
If deployed, the force would likely include both infantry and armored vehicles, and would add to the 5,000 Marines and thousands of paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division who have already been ordered to the region.
The Journal notes that it is unclear exactly where the 10,000 troops would be sent, but that they would likely be “within striking distance” of Iran.
The Daily Beast has contacted the Pentagon and the White House for comment.
The Trump administration sent thousands of Marines to the region last week, followed by 2,000 soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division.
Since the start of Trump’s war on Iran on Feb. 28, 13 service members have died, and nearly 300 have been wounded. The wounded include dozens of soldiers hospitalized in Germany with health issues that have been labeled “urgent,” including traumatic brain injuries and memory loss.
News of the potential deployment comes less than a week after the U.S. Department of the Army revised its recruitment policy, raising the maximum enlistment age from 35 to 42.
It also comes as President Trump announced he was once again pressing pause on his threats to destroy Iran’s power plants amid the ongoing closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a result of what he described as “very good and productive conversations.” Iran has continued to deny that any negotiations are taking place.
“They asked for seven [days] and I said I’m going to give you 10 because they gave me ships, we talked about the eight ships, the present that I talked about the other day,” he told the panelists on Fox News’ The Five on Thursday.
The president had previously referred to a mysterious gift Iran had given him on Tuesday; it was later revealed on Thursday that the gift in question was granting passage through the strait to eight oil tankers.
“They were very thankful about that,” Trump said, referring to the extended pause, adding, “We are speaking, and it is going fairly well, so I gave them 10 days.”
Despite reports that Pakistan has been acting as an intermediary between the U.S. and Iran to deliver Trump’s 15-point peace plan, Iran has denied that any such talks are taking place.
Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi denied on Wednesday that negotiations were taking place, but did acknowledge that the U.S. had been “sending various messages through different intermediaries” for several days.
A day earlier, Iranian Lieutenant Colonel Ebrahim Zolfaghari responded to Trump’s claims that talks were underway by asking the U.S., “Has the level of your internal conflicts reached the state of negotiating with yourselves?”
Undeterred, Trump has continued to reference the talks, claiming on Wednesday that Iran was afraid to admit they were taking place.
“They are negotiating, by the way,” Trump told attendees at the National Republican Congressional Committee fundraising dinner in Washington D.C.
“They want to make a deal so badly but they are afraid to say it. Because they figure they will be killed by their own people. They are also afraid they will be killed by us.”
Despite his public statements—including vowing to continue “bombing our little hearts out” on Monday—reports suggest that privately, the president has told associates he wants to end the war in the next couple of weeks as it is distracting him from other priorities.
The war is testing his relationship with anti-interventionist members of his party, including Rep. Nancy Mace, who has repeatedly asserted that she does not support the deployment of troops to Iran.
Trump’s actions in Iran have also hurt his polling numbers, with fresh numbers released on Thursday revealing that military action in Iran has a net approval rating of -16.
On the question of the president’s handling of Iran in general, the number slips even further to a net approval rating of -28. In addition, the president’s own net approval rating is currently at its lowest point, of -18.
