Trump warns of more strikes on Iran’s Kharg Island, pressures allies to secure oil choke point

[PALM BEACH/DUBAI/JERUSALEM] US President Donald Trump threatened more strikes on Iran’s main oil export hub Kharg Island, adding that he was not ready for a deal with Teheran to end the war, which has shut off the vital Strait of Hormuz and caused chaos in global energy markets.

With the US-Israeli war on Iran in its third week, Trump said US strikes had “totally demolished” much of the island and warned of more, telling NBC News on Saturday (Mar 14): “We may hit it a few more times just for fun.”

The comments marked a sharp escalation from Trump, who had previously said the US was targeting only military sites on Kharg, and dealt a blow to diplomatic efforts to end a war that has spread across the Middle East and killed more than 2,000 people, most in Iran and Lebanon.

Washington has brushed aside attempts by Middle Eastern allies to open talks, three sources told Reuters. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Sunday that they had fired more missiles at Israel and three US bases in the region.

Trump, who has made a series of varying demands, including a say in choosing Iran’s leader and an end to its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes, told NBC News that Teheran appeared ready to make a deal to end the fighting, but that “the terms aren’t good enough yet”.

In his interview with NBC, Trump raised the possibility that Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei may have been killed, but Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Khamenei was in full health and managing the situation.

War, energy crisis look set to persist

With no clear end in sight, Iran’s ability to choke off traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, the conduit for a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas, has emerged with increasing urgency as a decisive threat to the global economy.

Although some Iranian vessels have continued to pass, the passage has been effectively closed for most of the world’s shipping since the US and Israel attacked Iran on Feb 28, at the start of an intensive bombing campaign that has hit thousands of targets across the country.

Khamenei, who succeeded as supreme leader after his father Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed on the first day of the attacks, has said the Strait of Hormuz should ​remain closed.

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The International Energy Agency said last week that the closure of the narrow passage along Iran’s southern coast had triggered the largest disruption to global oil markets in history, and was expected to cut around 8 per cent of global supplies in March.

The global ship-refuelling hub of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates resumed oil-loading operations on Sunday, a Fujairah-based industry source said.

With crude oil prices above US$100 a barrel and expected to rise further, the issue has hung over Trump’s Republican Party, which faces a major test at the midterm elections in November.

Trump himself has dismissed worries about spiking prices for American consumers, saying they will fall back quickly. But he has called on China, France, Japan, South Korea, Britain and others to send warships to the Strait of Hormuz, to ensure shipping can pass.

“The countries of the world that ​receive oil through the Hormuz Strait must take care of that passage, and we will help – ⁠a lot!” Trump wrote in a social media post on Saturday. “The US will also coordinate with those countries so that everything goes quickly, smoothly and well.”

France is seeking to assemble a coalition to secure the strait once the security situation stabilises, while Britain is discussing a range of options with allies to ensure the security of shipping, officials have said.

But none of the countries mentioned gave any immediate indication of moving while fighting continued.

Araghchi told his French counterpart that countries must refrain from anything that could escalate the conflict. He also said Iran would respond to any attack on its energy facilities.

Israel denies talks with Lebanon

As the stand-off continued, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said it fired more missiles and drone barrages at targets in Israel and at US military bases in the region; Saudi Arabia said it intercepted 10 attacks.

Araghchi denied that Iran was targeting civilian or residential areas in the Middle East, and said it was ready to form a committee with its neighbours to investigate the responsibility for such strikes. Gulf countries have suffered damage to energy facilities and residential areas during the war.

A source briefed on Israel’s military strategy told Reuters that Israel had begun targeting roadblocks and bridges it believed Revolutionary Guards commanders were using. Iranian media reported that the country’s security forces detained dozens of people accused of sharing information with Israel.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar rejected claims that Israel had told the US it was running low on interceptors. He also dismissed a report that it could soon hold direct talks with Lebanon, where it has resumed its campaign against the Iranian-backed Hizbollah movement.

In Iran, at least 15 people were killed when an air strike hit a refrigerator and heater factory in the central Iranian city of Isfahan, the semi-official Fars news agency said on Saturday. The Revolutionary Guards promised further retaliation for workers killed in Iran’s industrial areas. REUTERS