The White House has not ruled out the possibility of sending ground troops into Iran, and the Iranian foreign minister says he assumes those soldiers are coming. When Tom Llamas of NBC News asked Abbas Araghchi if Tehran feared the development, Araghchi responded, "No, we are waiting for them—because we are confident that we can confront them, and that would be a big disaster for them." The full interview airs Thursday on the network's Nightly News program at 6:30pm ET.
Araghchi also rejected new talks with Washington, calling them pointless. "The fact is that we don't have any positive experience of negotiating with the United States," he said. "You know, especially with this administration. We negotiated twice last year and this year, and then in the middle of negotiations, they attacked us." Trump himself has explicitly not taken the possibility of ground troops off the table, and press chief Karoline Leavitt reiterated the point on Wednesday, per Fox News.
"They're not part of the plan for this operation at this time, but I certainly will never take away military options on behalf of the president of the United States or the commander in chief, and he wisely does not do the same for himself." Araghchi spoke as the US-Israeli war with Iran continued into its sixth day, as hopes of a quick victory continue to fade, according to an analysis by Luke Broadwater at the New York Times.