US President Donald Trump threatened on Monday to destroy Iran’s oil export hub of Kharg Island and other oil wells and power plants if it does not agree to a deal to end the war soon.
Trump wrote on his Truth Social network that the United States is in “serious discussions” with “a more reasonable regime” in Tehran.
“Great progress has been made but, if for any reason a deal is not shortly reached, which it probably will be, and if the Hormuz Strait is not immediately ‘open for business,’ we will conclude our lovely ‘stay’ in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their electric generating plants, oil wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinisation plants), which we have purposefully not yet ‘touched,'” Trump said.
Kharg Island, 24 kilometres off the coast of Iran in the northern Persian Gulf, is central to the country’s oil exports and economy.
Any attack on its energy infrastructure could also have serious consequences for global oil markets that have already been pushed to the brink.
About 90% of Iran’s crude oil exports leave the country via the island, much of it destined for China and other Asian markets.
Kharg Island is relatively small — about 8 kilometres long and 4–5 kilometres wide — but it hosts extensive infrastructure, including storage tanks, pipelines and offshore loading terminals.
The island’s terminals can load roughly 1.3–1.6 million barrels of crude per day, helped by deep-water access that allows very large crude carriers to dock.
Trump’s social media post comes after he said in an interview with the Financial Times on Sunday that he wanted to take Iran’s oil and suggested US troops could seize and control the Kharg export hub.
In the interview, Trump said his preference would be to “take the oil in Iran,” a move that would require seizing Kharg.
“Maybe we take Kharg Island, maybe we don’t,” he continued. “We have a lot of options.”
Also in the interview, Trump said that the US had about 3,000 targets that it would still like to hit in Iran, but added that “a deal could be made fairly quickly.”
Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One late on Sunday that the US was negotiating “directly and indirectly” with Iran.
“We’re doing extremely well in that negotiation but you never know with Iran because we negotiate with them and then we always have to blow them up,” Trump said.
Mixed messages
Trump’s comments remain at odds with Tehran, which has repeatedly denied that direct negotiations are taking place.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei acknowledged on Monday that Tehran had been given a 15-point proposal from the Trump administration, but said there had been no direct negotiations with Washington so far.
Earlier, Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf dismissed the talks in Pakistan as a cover to get more US troops into the area.
He said Iranian forces were “waiting for the arrival of American troops on the ground to set them on fire and punish their regional partners forever,” according to state media.
The US already launched airstrikes once that targeted military positions on Kharg. Iran has threatened to launch its own ground invasion of Gulf countries and mine the Persian Gulf if US troops land on its territory.
To get an amphibious invasion force to Kharg would mean transiting the Strait of Hormuz and most of the Persian Gulf.
Experts say that holding the island would also be a challenge, because in addition to its missiles and drones, it would be well within artillery range from the Iranian mainland.
Additional sources • AP, AFP