Trump announced the change in his current opinion about the Kurds' participation in the offensive against Iran during a conversation with journalists aboard Air Force One on the way back to Florida after the ceremony accepting the bodies of six soldiers killed by Iran.
— I ruled it out. I don't want Kurds to go there. I don't want the Kurds to be harmed and killed. “They were ready to come in, but I told them I didn't want them to come in,” Trump said. — The war is complicated enough without involving the Kurds.
Why did Trump change his mind about the Kurds?
What did Trump say about sending ground troops to Iran?
What fears did Turkish Minister Hakan Fidan have?
What arguments did Trump present against Kurdish participation in the offensive?
Trump directly about land intervention in Iran
— I won't answer that question. Is it possible? Possibly, for a very good reason. There would have to be a very good reason. “I would say that if we ever did that, they would be so decimated that they wouldn't be able to fight on the ground,” Trump said.
He also did not rule out that land forces could be used to intercept stocks of highly enriched uranium, which are to be located, among others, in in deeply buried tunnels in Isfahan, beyond the reach of penetrating bombs.
— We'll find out. We didn't talk about it. (…) They [Irańczycy] they were unable to reach them [zapasów] to receive. And maybe someday we will. That would be great. “Now we are just decimating them,” he said.
According to the Washington Post, the famous paratrooper unit, the 82nd Airborne Division, canceled previously planned exercises, which caused speculation about its possible sending to Iran.
