Several hundred U.S. Special Operations forces, including Army Rangers and Navy SEALs, have arrived in the Middle East, The New York Times reported.

The deployment follows reports that President Donald Trump is considering ground operations in Iran, potentially to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, seize Kharg Island, and extract the country’s stockpile of enriched uranium.

On Monday, Reuters reported that thousands of soldiers from the U.S. Army’s elite 82nd Airborne Division have also begun arriving in the region as Trump weighs his next steps in the war. The new Army contingent includes elements of the division headquarters, a brigade combat team, and units providing logistics and other support.

The paratroopers, based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, join thousands of sailors, Marines, and Special Operations forces already in the region. Over the weekend, about 3,500 service members aboard the USS Tripoli arrived in the Middle East.

U.S. Sailors and Marines aboard USS Tripoli (LHA 7) arrived in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility, March 27. The America-class amphibious assault ship serves as the flagship for the Tripoli Amphibious Ready Group / 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit composed of about… pic.twitter.com/JFWiPBbkd2

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) March 28, 2026

The San Diego-based USS Boxer, along with the USS New Orleans and another Marine Expeditionary Unit, are also en route to the region. 

In a post on Truth Social on Monday, Trump said that his administration is continuing to negotiate with Iran and expressed optimism that an agreement would soon be reached to end the war, now in its fifth week.

In the same post, Trump warned that if a deal is not “shortly reached” and the Strait of Hormuz is not immediately opened, the U.S. would attack all of Iran’s electric generating plants, oil wells, Kharg Island and possibly its desalinization plants.