Current and former officials said roughly 6,000 troops are aboard the aircraft carrier USS George HW Bush and others escorting it. About 4,200 members of the Boxer Amphibious Ready Group and 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit are then due to arrive in the region at the end of the month.
They will join the 50,000 personnel the Pentagon said are already involved in operations against Iran.
Last month, a US Navy ship carrying about 2,500 Marines arrived in the Middle East, and another 2,500 Marines were also deployed from California.
He said: “You can’t fight and win a war if you tell your adversary what you are willing to do or what you are not willing to do to include boots on the ground.
“Our adversary right now thinks there are 15 different ways we could come at them with boots on the ground. And guess what? There are.”
But he also said the goal is to reach a deal with Iran through talks because “we don’t want to have to do more militarily than we have to”.
This comes as the US President is trying to press Iran on a peace deal involving it reopening the Strait of Hormuz and ending its nuclear programme.
Negotiations have been led by Vice President JD Vance and have so far been unsuccessful following 21-hour talks in Islamabad, Pakistan, over the weekend.
When asked if the war was over, he replied: “I think it’s close to over, yes. I view it as very close to over. If I pulled up sticks now, it would take them close to 20-years to rebuild that country.”
