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‘Your sons, daughters … could be on Kharg Island’

Former White House strategist and podcast host Steve Bannon told the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Friday that a US-Israeli conflict with Iran could result in US troops fighting on the ground on Kharg Island.

Bannon told CPAC attendees in Grapevine, Texas, that the U.S. “probably [at] is the beginning of war,” but added that “it was clearly President Trump’s decision to move forward.”

“You have to be convinced that this is the right thing to do, especially now that we’re on the eve of potentially entering American combat troops into the region,” Bannon continued. “Your sons, daughters, grandchildren, great-grandchildren may be on Kharg Island or holding a beachhead down the Strait of Hormuz.”

Trump is considering buying Kharg Island, which is Iran’s economic lifeline and holds 90 percent of its crude oil exports. Seizing the island would require ground troops, which experts say would be risky and likely lead to more casualties, and that the option of negotiating with Iran would be unlikely.

Speaking right after Bannon, Blackwater founder Erik Prince emphasized that the only person who will decide to end the conflict will be Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei. However, he added that Khamenei’s wife, several other family members and his father, former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, died in the US-Israeli attacks on Iran.

The CPAC audience applauded, but Prince said he “did not share the administration’s optimism that there would be a peaceful end to this.”

“They’re going to burn it,” he continued. “And my real concern is if they try to put the boots on the ground, [open] Over the next few weeks you will see images of American warships burning in the Strait of Hormuz. And I don’t think people are really ready for that.”

Prince also downplayed calls for regime change by the “armed opposition” within Iran; This is something Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu supported at different times before and during the conflict.

“There has never been any real preparation of armed opposition within the country, and there are many ways to do that from the periphery without needing US boots on the ground,” he added.

Trump and his Cabinet members are touting US firepower raining down on Iran. The president said the strikes had “reduced” Iran’s naval, air and missile capabilities and also suggested the conflict could “slow down.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the Group of Seven foreign ministers in France that the conflict would be concluded within two to four weeks. Axis declared. he said later Guard He said the conflict would end in “weeks, not months.”

“By the time we’re done with them here in the next few weeks, they’re going to be weaker than they have been in recent history,” Rubio told The Guardian.

Rubio is still working with mediators to negotiate an end to the U.S. military operation with Iran, sources told Axios. He added that it was unclear who was actually making the decisions in Tehran and that negotiators had difficulty communicating with Iranian officials, who feared they could be located and killed by airstrikes.

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