Iran Claims US is Secretly Planning a Ground Invasion and Vows to 'Set Troops Ablaze'

Iran's parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf accused the United States on Sunday of secretly preparing a ground invasion while publicly pursuing diplomatic negotiations, warning that Tehran's forces were ready and waiting. Qalibaf said: 'The enemy sends messages of friendship openly, while secretly plotting a ground invasion. We are waiting for their arrival; we will set them ablaze and punish their regional partners forever.'

The remarks landed as regional powers moved to prevent the month-long conflict from escalating further. Foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt gathered in Islamabad on Sunday without US or Israeli participation, as Pakistan sought to facilitate direct talks between Washington and Tehran. The diplomatic push came at a moment of sharply rising military tension on both sides.

Pentagon Plans and Troop Deployments

Qalibaf's warning did not emerge in a vacuum. The Washington Post reported late Saturday that the US Department of Defense was preparing options for ground operations in Iran, which would fall short of a full-scale invasion but could involve thousands of troops and take weeks or months. According to the report, which cited unnamed American officials, President Donald Trump had not yet approved any of the plans. The White House told the Post that the Pentagon works to give the president 'maximum optionality,' but stressed this 'does not mean the President has made a decision.'

The USS Tripoli arrived in the Middle East on Saturday as part of a complement of 3,500 troops, according to US Central Command. Despite the build-up, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said: 'We are achieving all of those objectives, we are ahead of schedule on most of them, and we can achieve them without any ground troops, without any.'

Iran's Defiant Stance

Qalibaf, described as one of Iran's few surviving major political figures and widely regarded as a hard-liner, went beyond the ground invasion warning. He also rebuffed the Trump administration's 15-point peace proposal, saying it merely reflects Washington's demands rather than a balanced framework, and asserting that as long as Washington continues to push for Iran's capitulation, Tehran's stance will remain unchanged.

In a letter marking 30 days since the outbreak of the war, Qalibaf wrote: 'We are in a major world war, and must prepare ourselves for a long, difficult and complex path... We will not emerge from this war except in victory.' He added that Iran would not allow its enemies to leave the conflict without facing consequences.

Iran also widened its list of threats during the same period. The paramilitary Revolutionary Guard warned that Iran would consider Israeli universities and branches of US universities in the region 'legitimate targets' unless offered safety assurances for Iranian universities, with a deadline set for midday Monday, 30 March. American universities including Georgetown, New York University and Northwestern operate campuses in Qatar and the UAE.

A Conflict Already Claiming Thousands

More than 3,000 people have been killed in the war that began with US and Israeli strikes on Iran, which triggered Iranian counter-attacks on Israel and neighbouring Gulf Arab states. Iran has also sustained significant casualties on its own soil, with Iranian authorities reporting more than 1,900 people killed inside the Islamic Republic. The conflict has since expanded to Lebanon, Iraq and now Yemen, where Iran-backed Houthi rebels launched their first missiles toward Israel on Saturday, threatening shipping on the Red Sea's Bab el-Mandeb strait.

With thousands of additional US troops now in the region, the Pentagon reportedly weighing ground operation options, and Iran publicly vowing to confront any incursion, the Islamabad diplomatic talks and Washington's response to Tehran's Monday ultimatum on university strikes will be closely watched as both sides weigh their next moves.