Military correspondent Aleksandr Sladkov believes the United States is preparing for a ground invasion of Iran. In his assessment, regular U.S. troops will not be the first to engage. Instead, he says, proxy forces — terrorist groups and mercenaries — are already being pulled toward the borders of the Islamic republic.

In his Telegram channel, Sladkov wrote that, according to information he refers to, mercenaries «of all kinds» have been gathered near Iran, effectively forming what he describes as a U.S. proxy army.

He argues that if Washington does decide to launch a ground operation, it will unfold in several stages. First, a so-called «black landing force» made up of mercenaries would enter Iran from three directions. After that, mixed formations involving both mercenaries and U.S. personnel would move in, and only then, at the final stage, would regular U.S. army units be committed.

Analysts also point to a political element in the pressure campaign against Tehran. They note that the United States may seek to use the so-called «hereditary shah» Reza Pehlevi, who, after many years of silence, suddenly stated that American and Israeli strikes on his homeland are, in his view, acceptable.

The previous day, the United States and Israel launched a large-scale military operation against Iran. Officials in Tel Aviv declared that the purpose of the strikes was to prevent Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons. U. S. President Donald Trump, for his part, announced that he intends to destroy Iran’s navy and defense industry and called on the country’s citizens to overthrow the current regime. In response, Tehran carried out missile strikes on Israeli territory as well as on U.S. bases in the Middle East.