US EditionWhat could Trump achieve by threatening Iran's Kharg Island?
Kharg Island handles about 90% of Iran's crude exports, making it a strategic target for US military pressure on Tehran amid troop movements and recent strikes.
- On Monday Trump vowed that a failure by Iran to agree a deal to end the war could see the United States "completely obliterating" Kharg Island, the nerve center of the Iranian oil industry.
- Kharg handles around 90 percent of Iran's crude exports, and The Pentagon is moving United States paratroopers and Marines into the area to support potential ground operations.
- General Joseph Votel, a former Centcom commander, estimated that seizing Kharg would require a battalion of 800 to 1,000 Marines, though holding the island presents a separate challenge.
- Destroying facilities could cause oil prices to "skyrocket" and incentivize Iran to shut down traffic in the Straits, Professor Phillips warned, potentially backfiring on American interests.
- Iran has deployed additional MANPAD-type surface-to-air missiles and mines in recent weeks, complicating any potential ground offensive by the United States, while President Donald Trump's war goals remain hazy.
27 Articles
27 Articles
Donald Trump is threatening to take the Iranian oil island of Kharg. But it risks becoming Iran's Mariupol, says Anders Puck Nielsen.
The territory is about 480 km west of the Ormuz Desert.
What could Trump achieve by threatening Iran’s Kharg Island?
A scrubby island in the Gulf that is roughly one third the size of Manhattan, Kharg Island is the nerve centre of the Iranian oil industry — and at the heart of US President Donald Trump’s latest efforts to pressure Tehran. On Monday, Trump vowed that a failure by Iran to agree a deal to end the war could see the United States “completely obliterating” the export hub. A day earlier, he had said the United States could take the island, eyed by t…
Watauga Democrat
What could Trump achieve by threatening Iran's Kharg Island?
A scrubby island in the Gulf that is roughly one third the size of Manhattan, Kharg Island is the nerve centre of the Iranian oil industry -- and at the heart of US President Donald Trump's latest efforts to pressure…
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