US EditionWhite House Considering a Raid to Seize Kharg Island: Axios
The White House debates raids or seizure of Kharg Island to cut Iran's oil revenue, vital for 90% of exports, amid rising oil prices and ongoing US-Israel-Iran conflict.
- Kharg Island, near Bushehr, serves as Iran’s principal crude export terminal on an arid 20 square kilometre island handling the bulk of Iran’s oil exports.
- Built in the 1960s by the Khark Chemical Company, the island concentrates export infrastructure because Gulf waters are shallow, requiring a deep-water offloading point.
- FRANCE 24’s interviews show experts split over whether Kharg is truly vulnerable, with Neil Quilliam calling it 'the crown jewel' and Andreas Krieg warning of immediate strategic consequences.
- Analysts warned that destroying Kharg would take seconds and risk wider escalation, including choking the straits, with Sonia Martinez-Giron highlighting global economic consequences, especially amid high oil prices.
- Scott Lucas compared a takeover of Kharg to seizing an entire shadow tanker fleet, and analysts noted sabotage or cyberattacks could choke Iran’s exports without military action.
66 Articles
66 Articles
Almost all Iran's oil exports run across the small island of Kharg. It would be easy for the US and Israel to attack them. But strategists know that Kharg is a trap.
Kharg Island: Iran’s ‘untouchable’ oil artery?
Some 25 kilometres off Iran’s southern coast lies a tiny island overrun by pipelines, terminals and storage facilities. This is Kharg Island – the beating heart of Iran’s oil exports – and a seemingly perfect target to weaken the Islamic Republic. But despite mounting pressure from Israel, the United States appears reluctant to strike it. Why?
Israel is bombarding Iran's energy infrastructure. But the US is pushing the brakes – leaving a strategically important island in the Persian Gulf untouched. Restraint has good reasons.
Iran's Kharg Island, a small but strategically important strip of land located in the waters of the northern Persian Gulf, has remained untouched by US and Israeli forces even as the conflict in the Middle East enters its second week.
An island smaller than Fehmarn could soon become the focus of Donald Trump. On Kharg in the Persian Gulf is Iran's most important and largest oil terminal. In the war against the Mullah regime, Kharg could become the target of the US - but with great risks.
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