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 further strikes on Iran’s Kharg Island oil export hub and urged allies to deploy warships to secure the Strait of Hormuz, an artery for global energy supplies, as Tehran vowed to intensify its response.

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

The remarks marked a sharp escalation from Mr Trump, who had previously said the US was targeting only military sites on Kharg, delivering a blow to diplomatic efforts. His administration has brushed aside attempts by Middle Eastern allies to open talks, three sources told Reuters, as the conflict grows.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on March 15 that they had fired more missiles at Israel and three US bases in the region.

Mr 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 Tehran appeared ready to make a deal to end the fighting but that “the terms aren’t good enough yet”.

He raised the possibility that Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who replaced his slain father, may have been killed. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, however, said Mr Khamenei was in full health and managing the situation.

War, energy crisis

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.

While 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.

Mr Khamenei has said the Strait of Hormuz should ​remain closed.

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 March 15, a Fujairah-based industry source said.

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

Mr Trump himself has dismissed concerns about spiking prices for US 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!” Mr Trump wrote in a social media post on March 14. “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.

Mr Takayuki Kobayashi, Japan’s ruling party policy chief, declined to rule out the possibility, but told public broadcaster NHK that “the (legal) threshold is very high”.

Japan interprets its pacifist post-war Constitution to mean it can deploy its military if the nation’s survival is threatened, but the government would have to invoke a 2015 security law that has not been used.

South Korea’s presidential office said it would decide on Mr Trump’s request after a “careful review”.

Mr 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.

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

Mr Araghchi denied 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 two-week 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 security forces detained dozens of people accused of sharing information with Israel, Iranian media reported.

The war that Mr Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched on Feb 28 has killed more than 2,000 people, mostly in Iran, according to reports from governments and state media.

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

At least 15 were killed when an air strike hit a refrigerator and heater factory in the central Iranian city of Isfahan, Fars News Agency said. The Revolutionary Guards promised further retaliation for workers killed in Iran’s industrial areas. REUTERS