Trump Threatens Kharg Island Seizure as US-Iran Fighting Escalates

United States President Donald Trump has warned that American forces will strike Iran “very hard tonight” and said Washington intends to take control of Kharg Island along with other Iranian oil assets “in the not too distant future”. His remarks, posted Thursday on Truth Social, followed two days of attacks exchanged between the US and Iran, raising fresh doubts about efforts to secure a lasting ceasefire.

The comments suggested Washington was prepared to return to wider war, though Trump has swung repeatedly in recent weeks between military threats and offers of diplomacy. In one recent example, he warned that “a whole civilisation will die” only hours before a pause in hostilities was reached, with that halt beginning on April 8.

“The United States will be hitting Iran (Whose Navy, Air Force, Radar, Anti Aircraft, and all other forms of Defense, together with most of its offensive capability, are GONE!), VERY HARD TONIGHT,” Trump wrote.

He added that “at some point in the not too distant future” the US would be “taking Kharg Island, and other oil infrastructure points, and assume total control of their Oil and Gas Markets”. Trump then referred to earlier US military action against Venezuela, including the abduction of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.

Maduro’s successor, Delcy Rodriguez, has since managed a loosening of Venezuela’s state-run oil sector to overseas investment while under strong pressure from Washington. Kharg Island, often called the “Forbidden Island” because of tight military restrictions there, handles 90 percent of Iran’s crude oil exports.

Trump later told Fox News that seizing Kharg Island had long been his “preference”. He said, “I don’t know that America has the stomach for it, to be honest,” while also indicating he remained reluctant to send US ground troops into Iran.

The US president’s comments came soon after Iran’s foreign ministry said the latest American strikes had made the current pause in fighting “practically meaningless”. Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs, called the new US attacks “a widespread and utter nullification of the ceasefire”.

Iranian media said recent American strikes hit the port city of Bandar Abbas, Qeshm Island, the southern towns of Sirik and Minab, and Karaj, west of Tehran. Iran has carried out attacks on US bases in Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan. Trump has also alleged that Iran shot down an American helicopter in the Strait of Hormuz on Monday.

After the latest US attacks, Tehran announced a complete closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the vital waterway that has become one of Iran’s main pressure points in the confrontation.

Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera’s Kimberly Halkett said Trump appeared to be combining military force with provocative public messaging in an attempt to move Iran towards an agreement. US officials have said for weeks that a deal is near, but they have provided little detail on remaining disputes over Iran’s nuclear programme, future authority over the Strait of Hormuz, or the release of frozen Iranian money.

Analysts say the Trump administration also faces domestic political pressure to secure terms stronger than those in the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, known as the JCPOA. Under that accord, Iran limited its nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief. Trump withdrew the US from the agreement in 2018 and, since returning to office last year, has twice ordered strikes on Iran while nuclear talks were under way.

“So what’s clear is that the US president is continuing with this Truth Social post to mix public threats with what he believes is still possible, and that is diplomacy at the barrel of a gun,” Halkett said.

Abas Aslani, a senior research fellow at the Centre for Middle East Strategic Studies, told Al Jazeera that the Trump administration “wants to escalate in order to create leverage at the negotiating table to pressure Tehran to make concessions that they did not in the past”. He said Iran, for its part, is focused on “restoring deterrence against additional attacks on the country”.

“And for Iran, this is also important because the previous response to the US attack was not enough to ensure that they will not attack Iran again,” Aslani said. “That is why they might be escalating to de-escalate [the situation].”

US CENTCOM said Thursday that American forces had disabled three oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman as part of the continuing blockade of Iranian ports. India also called on Washington on Thursday to stop its attacks, saying three Indian crew members were killed in a US strike on a vessel.