Trump says US may strike Iran’s Kharg Island oil export hub ‘just for fun’ | US-Israel war on Iran
Donald Trump said on Saturday that the United States could launch more attacks on Iran’s Kharg Island oil export hub “just for fun” and said Tehran appeared ready to make a deal to end the conflict but “conditions are not good enough yet.”
He said the US strikes had “completely destroyed” most of Kharg Island and told NBC News “we might hit it a few more times just for fun.”
In the same interview with NBC, Trump questioned, without attribution, whether Iran’s new religious leader “is alive.”
Trump also said in a 30-minute phone call with NBC that it was not clear whether Iran had planted mines in the Strait of Hormuz.
“We will comb the Bosphorus very strongly, and we believe that other countries that are blocked in some way and in some cases prevented from obtaining oil will join us,” he added.
Trump’s comments came as he renewed his call on Saturday for other countries to help secure the Strait of Hormuz and said the United States would coordinate with them during the US-Israeli war on Iran.
“The United States has defeated and completely destroyed much of Iran, both militarily, economically and otherwise, but the Countries of the World that receive Oil through the Strait of Hormuz should be interested in this transition and we will be VERY helpful,” Trump wrote in his Truth Social post.
“The United States will also coordinate with these countries to make sure everything goes quickly, smoothly and well. This was always supposed to be a team effort, and now it will be – bringing the world together towards Harmony, Security and Everlasting Peace!”
Trump’s claim that “this should always have been a team effort” can be seen as something of a pivot from his previous stances that Operation Epic Fury was a unilateral (plus Israeli) show of force that did not require international authorization. With the current disruption to global oil supplies, the task is increasingly falling on the international community to help manage the impacts.
At the same time, Trump has long argued that the United States pays too much to protect global trade routes (such as the Strait of Hormuz), which he says primarily benefits other countries, such as China or European countries.
