Iran on Sunday warned against a US invasion after a Marine unit arrived in the Middle East, raising the specter of a fraught new phase of the war.
The Pentagon is preparing for possible ground operations that could last weeks, The Washington Post reported, a campaign that would involve raids but stop short of a full-scale invasion.
The conflict also widened over the weekend as the Iran-backed Houthi militia in Yemen joined the war, firing missiles at Israel.
Middle East officials met in Pakistan on Sunday to discuss finding an end to hostilities, but “as the conflict expands to involve new actors with their own interests, a ceasefire will be increasingly difficult to impose and sustain,” an expert wrote in Foreign Affairs.