Trump threatens to cripple crucial Iranian oil hub
US President Donald Trump is threatening to hit the infrastructure of Iran’s oil hub on Kharg Island if Tehran does not stop attacking ships in the Strait of Hormuz; It’s a warning that could further shake markets coping with a historic supply disruption.
Trump matched Friday’s ultimatum with a social media post saying the United States had “completely destroyed” military targets on the island, located about 500 kilometers northwest of the strait, which is the export terminal for 90 percent of Iran’s oil shipments.
Trump wrote that the US strikes did not target Kharg’s oil infrastructure, but “if Iran or anyone else does anything to interfere with the Free and Safe Passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz, I will immediately reconsider this decision.”
However, Iran has shown no signs of surrendering or bowing to US-Israeli military pressure.
According to reports in Iranian media, the Iranian armed forces responded to the Kharg attack by saying that any attack on their country’s oil and energy infrastructure would also result in an attack on facilities owned by oil companies cooperating with the United States in the region.
Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency, citing sources, reported that more than 15 explosions were heard on the island during the US strikes.
Sources said air defense systems, the naval base and airport facilities were hit, but there was no damage to the oil infrastructure.
Markets were awaiting any sign that the U.S. strikes had damaged the island’s network of pipelines, terminals and storage tanks, and even minor disruptions could further tighten global supplies and weigh on an unstable market.
Iran cannot defend against US attacks and “it would be wise to lay down their weapons and save what is left of their country,” he said on the Truth Social platform.
The U.S. Navy will soon begin escorting tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, a channel that provides 20 percent of the world’s fossil energy resources, Trump told reporters on Friday.
But as the war enters its third week, Iran has shown no signs of bowing down or bowing to US-Israeli military pressure.
Iran’s religious leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who replaced his slain father, said the strategic waterway should remain closed as a tool of pressure.
According to reports in Iranian media, the Iranian armed forces responded to the Kharg attack by saying that any attack on their country’s oil and energy infrastructure would also result in an attack on facilities owned by oil companies cooperating with the United States in the region.
Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency, citing sources, reported that more than 15 explosions were heard on the island during the US strikes.
Sources said air defense systems, the naval base and airport facilities were hit, but there was no damage to the oil infrastructure.
Most of the oil sent from Iran via Kharg goes to China, the world’s largest crude importer.
Markets were looking for any sign that U.S. strikes had damaged the island’s complex network of pipelines, terminals and storage tanks.
Even minor disruptions could further tighten global supply, putting pressure on an unstable market.
Iran also claimed to have managed to shoot down five drones over its own airspace, bringing the total number of US and Israeli drones it has shot down during the war to 114, Iranian state television reported on Saturday.
Oil prices have fluctuated sharply over Trump’s changing comments on the likely duration of the war, which began with intense US and Israeli bombing of Iran and quickly escalated into a regional conflict with broad consequences for energy and stock markets around the world.
Iraqi security sources said that the US embassy in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, was hit in a missile attack on Saturday and smoke rose from the building.
In other attacks in the region, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said it had launched additional attacks on Israel along with Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia, Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported.
Some oil loading operations at the UAE’s port of Fujairah outside the Strait of Hormuz were suspended following a drone attack and fire on Saturday morning, Bloomberg News reported.
At least 12 medical personnel were killed in an Israeli attack on a health center in the town of Borj Qalaouiya in southern Lebanon, the Lebanese state news agency reported on Saturday, citing the health ministry.
In the news in the Iranian media, it was stated that at least 12 people died and many people were injured in the attacks carried out in many places, including the central and southeastern provinces of Iran.
A bullet hit a rural house in the village of Khizab in Khomein, southwest of Tehran, killing six people and wounding seven others, Tasnim news agency quoted the provincial governor’s security aide as saying.
After two weeks of war, 2,000 people have been killed, mostly in Iran, many in Lebanon and a growing number in the Gulf.
US forces suffered casualties, including the deaths of all six crew members of a refueling plane that crashed in western Iraq.
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