West Asia crisis: Donald Trump makes rapid U-turn, says 'boots on the ground only if necessary'

He said there will soon be retaliation for the attack on the US Embassy in Riyadh and for the deaths of US troops

Amid the escalating tension in West Asia with the United States trading attacks with Iran, President Donald Trump has said "boots on the ground" may not be necessary.

In an interview with NewsNation, Trump said there will soon be retaliation for the attack on the US Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and for the deaths of US troops. Six US troops have been killed in action so far, as of Monday.

In the interview, Trump said US boots would be on the ground "only if necessary".

Follow our LIVE coverage of West Asia conflicts here.

When asked what the threshold for that would be, he said, "I wouldn't give you anything on that. I mean I don't think they'll be necessary. I don't think we're gonna have any necessity for doing it."

Deviation from earlier claim

This is a deviation from Trump's earlier claim that he does not "have the yips" for having boots on the ground, indicating that he was not ruling out military options if necessary.

After launching strikes on Iran on February 28, Trump had told NY Post, "Every President says, 'There will be no boots on the ground.' I don't say it. I say 'probably don't need them,' [or] 'if they were necessary."

He also said that the US had more firepower in store and added that "the big wave hasn't even happened".

On Monday Trump said that the US had "the capability to go far longer " than its projected four-to-five-week time frame for its military operations against Iran.

What does the phrase mean?

'Boots on the ground' refers to the deployment of combat troops inside another country, instead of depending only on air strikes, drones, or naval operations. It primarily means sending soldiers directly into active battle zones.

Not postured ‌for ground ​forces in Iran: Marco Rubio ‌

Secretary ⁠of State Marco Rubio ‌told ‌reporters on ‌Monday that the US is ⁠not postured ‌for ground ​forces in Iran at ​this ⁠moment but President Trump ⁠has ‌those options. Rubio ‌added that the administration believes ⁠that ⁠the objective it has set can ​be achieved without ​ground ​forces.

"The President always has the options to undertake whatever operations he decides to do as the commander in chief. That said, we believe the objective that we have set for this mission, which is the destruction of their ballistic missile capabilities, both the launch capability and manufacturing, can be achieved without ground forces. Right now, we're not postured for ground forces, but obviously the President has those options. He's never going to rule out anything," Rubio ‌said.