Soon after, appearing on Fox News, Trump said he would like to take over the country’s oil infrastructure hub, Kharg Island, but he isn’t sure Americans have the appetite for it. [Getty]
US President Donald Trump vowed fresh strikes on Iran on Thursday and promised to take the country’s key oil infrastructure.
“The United States will be hitting Iran… VERY HARD TONIGHT,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social network.
“At some point in the not-too-distant future, we will be taking Kharg Island, and other oil infrastructure points, and assume total control of their Oil and Gas Markets, much like we have with Venezuela,” he added.
Soon after, appearing on Fox News, Trump said he would like to take over the country’s oil infrastructure hub, Kharg Island, but he isn’t sure Americans have the appetite for it.
“We are talking to them, and all, but you know, look, my preference has always been—take Kharg Island … my preference would be that. I don’t know that America has the stomach for it,” he said in an interview on Fox News’ “Fox and Friends.”
Trump gave no details of how the United States would seize Iran’s oil terminals, but any such operation would almost certainly require the involvement of US ground troops.
He talked about a possible seizure of Kharg Island earlier in the US-Israeli war on Iran, which was launched on 28 February.
Kharg Island is at the heart of Iran’s oil export industry, a lynchpin of the country’s battered economy. It sits off Iran’s Gulf coast, hundreds of kilometres northwest of the narrow, strategic Strait of Hormuz.
Moreover, Trump added to Fox News that he would “rather not” hit Iran’s civilian infrastructure, as he vowed to step up American strikes on the Islamic Republic.
“Yeah, but I’d rather not do it, because once you do that, the people suffer,” Trump said when asked if the United States would start attacking power plants and bridges as he has previously threatened.
It should be noted that intentionally hitting civilian infrastructure is considered a war crime.
