Tensions soar as Hegseth and Rubio feud over US troops in Iran

Tensions are rising between US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio over the US’s approach to the war on Iran, three former US officials and a senior regional official familiar with the matter told Middle East Eye.

Rubio and Hegseth were described as “at each other's throats” over the question of whether the US should deploy troops to Iran at Israel’s request, the sources told MEE.

Hegseth is supportive of the position, while Rubio is deeply wary of entangling the US in a long war, the sources told MEE.

The US has mainly confined its operations to air strikes and standoff strikes using cruise missiles and ballistic missiles, but CNN reported this week that the CIA has begun training and arming Kurdish fighters to operate in Iran.

One Gulf official told MEE that US officials have discussed sending special operations teams into Iran to target senior Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) officials and people familiar with Iran's nuclear programme.

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Both Rubio and Hegseth have defended the US’s war on Iran, but the US Secretary of War and former Fox News host has been especially combative when confronted by journalists with questions about the Trump administration’s timeline and potential deployment of troops.

“No, but we’re not going to go into the exercise of what we will or will not do,” Hegseth said this week, when asked about US troops on the ground.

“Why in the world would we tell you, the enemy, anybody, what we will or will not do in pursuit of an objective,” he added.

'We won't tell anybody'

One of the former US officials, a high-ranking military officer, who spoke with MEE, said Rubio was more attuned to the potential domestic opposition to putting US soldiers on the ground. He has also been irked with Hegseth’s public posture during press briefings, the source added.

As MEE reported on Tuesday, there have been complaints from US personnel across all branches of the military about commanders referring to the war on Iran as being a "part of God's plan" that will usher in the return of Jesus Christ. Hegseth, an ultra-conservative Christian, has a Crusader cross tattoo on his chest.

Trump himself has been evasive on the matter of whether the US should put boots on the ground in Iran.

“I don’t have the yips with respect to boots on the ground - like every president says, ‘There will be no boots on the ground.’ I don’t say it,” he told The New York Post on Monday. “I say ‘probably don’t need them,’ [or] ‘if they were necessary'.”

The State Department did not reply to MEE's request for comment by the time of publication.

The Department of War referred MEE to Hegseth's press conference on Wednesday, where he said the US military gains were being overshadowed by dead US service members.

"We've taken control of Iran's airspace and waterways without boots on the ground. We control their fate. But when a few drones get through or tragic things happen, it's front-page news," he said.

At least six US service members have been killed in the war.

The Trump administration has provided a variety of explanations for why it launched the war. Rubio said this week that the US attacked Iran because it feared Israel was going to attack it first. He then backtracked from that statement.

The Trump administration says it wants to destroy Iran’s ballistic missile, naval and nuclear programme, but at other times has said its goal is the toppling of the Islamic Republic.

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