The US expects its military operations against Iran to conclude within weeks, not months, and Washington can meet all its objectives without using ground troops, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said yesterday.
Rubio told reporters after meeting G7 counterparts in France that Washington was “on or ahead of schedule in that operation, and expect to conclude it at the appropriate time here – a matter of weeks, not months.”
While he said Washington could achieve its aims without ground troops, he acknowledged it was deploying some to the region “to give the president maximum optionality and maximum opportunity to adjust the contingencies, should they emerge.”
Rubio discussed with G7 foreign ministers the possibility that Iran, even after the conflict ends, could try to impose shipping tolls through the Strait of Hormuz.
Rubio said European and Asian countries that benefit from trade through the waterway should contribute to efforts to secure free passage, downplaying US dependence on the trade.
Washington has dispatched two contingents of thousands of Marines to the region, the first of which is due to arrive around the end of March aboard a huge amphibious assault ship.
The Pentagon is also expected to deploy thousands of elite airborne soldiers.
The deployments have raised concerns that the war, which the US and Israel launched on February 28 with air strikes that killed Iran’s supreme leader and other top officials, could turn into a prolonged ground battle.
Iran’s response, striking US and Israeli targets in the region as well as civilian targets in Gulf Arab nations and shipping, has disrupted global trade in energy and other commodities, raising fears of rising prices and recession.
US President Donald Trump has appeared anxious to wind down the unpopular war, and emphasised this week what he has described as productive negotiations aimed at a diplomatic solution, despite repeated assertions from Tehran that no such talks have begun.
On Thursday, Trump extended a deadline by 10 days for Iran to reopen the blockaded Strait of Hormuz or face attacks against its civilian energy grid.
Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said the US was hopeful of meetings with Iran within a week and that he expects an Iranian response soon to Trump’s 15-point proposal to end the war.
Witkoff said there were clear red lines for the US, including no uranium enrichment by Iran and the country giving up what he said was 10,000 kilograms of enriched stockpiled material.
Iranian media reported strikes on Iran’s decommissioned heavy-water nuclear research reactor and a factory producing yellowcake uranium late yesterday, and said there were no radiation leaks or danger arising from either attack.
Iran informed the International Atomic Energy Agency there was no increase in off-site radiation levels at the yellowcake facility, the IAEA said on X, adding that it would look into the report.
There were also reports of an attack on the Bushehr nuclear power plant, which Iranian media said left no casualties or extensive damage.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on X that Israel, in co-ordination with the US, had also hit two steel factories and a power plant.
“Attack contradicts POTUS extended deadline for diplomacy. Iran will exact HEAVY price for Israeli crimes,” Araqchi said, using an acronym for the president.
A senior Iranian told Reuters that Tehran had not decided whether to respond to the proposal the US sent this week after attacks on industrial and nuclear infrastructure yesterday.
The official said Iran had expected its response to be delivered yesterday or today, but said the continuing strikes while the US was seeking talks were “intolerable.”
The US proposal, sent via Pakistan two days ago, is reported to include demands ranging from dismantling Iran’s nuclear and missile programmes to relinquishing control of the world’s most important trade route for energy supplies.
The war has spread across the Middle East, killing thousands of people and causing the biggest disruption ever to energy supplies, hitting the global economy with soaring oil, gas and fertiliser prices that have fuelled inflation fears.
The Israeli military said late yesterday Iran had launched missiles towards Israel.
A 60-year-old man was killed in the Tel Aviv area, the ambulance service said.
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