Trump: U.S. Will Hit Iran Tonight and Soon “Be Taking Kharg Island”
President Donald Trump said today that U.S. forces will take Iran’s Kharg Island, which handles 90 percent of the nation’s oil exports, and take control of the nation’s energy infrastructure. Such a move would require U.S. ground troops.
And, he vowed as well, we will hit Iran “very hard” tonight.
The threat came after U.S. forces escalated their attack on Iran last night, hitting the nation with almost 50 Tomahawk cruise missiles.
The attack, which President Trump discussed with Fox News from the White House Situation Room, inspired Iranian officials to call the White House and ask the president to stop the air raid.
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) detailed some of the attack and the reason for it. It said U.S. forces disabled an oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman, the third such attack this week.
As for a peace deal, former U.S. counterterrorism chief Joe Kent thinks one cannot be reached because Iran believes it is winning the war.
Central Command reported “self-defense strikes” against “Iranian military surveillance capabilities, communication systems, and air defense sites across Iran”:
U.S. Marine Corps, Air Force, and Navy assets fired precision munitions on Iranian targets that posed a threat to U.S. forces and international commercial ships transiting regional waters.
The strikes are in response to Iran’s unwarranted and continued aggression. U.S. forces remain vigilant, lethal, and ready.
CENTCOM also detailed the attack on the oil tanker, the Guinea-Bissau flagged M/T Jalveer. “It attempted to transport oil from Iran through the Gulf of Oman,” so we disabled the vessel by firing two Hellfire missiles into its engine room.
U.S. aircraft also stopped the Palau-flagged vessels M/T Marivex and M/T Settebello on Monday and Tuesday. “Marivex violated the blockade by attempting to sail to an Iranian port and Settebello attempted to transport Iranian oil,” CENTCOM reported:
CENTCOM forces have disabled nine non-compliant vessels, redirected 135 ships that complied, and allowed 42 vessels supporting humanitarian aid to pass since initiating the blockade on April 13.
The blockade is being enforced impartially against vessels of all nations entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas, including all Iranian ports on the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman.
CENTCOM denied two claims from Iran: that it closed the Strait of Hormuz and attacked a U.S. warship. Both claims are false, it said.
Fox Report
A report from Fox News’ chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst offered more details that came from Trump, who spoke to Yingst as the attack continued.
Trump was in the Situation Room with Vice President J.D. Vance, and Middle East envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff. Trump told Yingst that U.S. forces hit Iran with 49 Tomahawk cruise missiles, “some of them as close as 40 miles from the Iranian capital.”
“The president said that U.S. fighter jets are also operating over the skies of Iran, taking out radar systems and air defense systems in the southwestern part of the country,” Yingst reported.
As well, Trump told Yingst that Iranian officials called him and asked to stop the bombing.
“I asked him what will happen if the Iranians do not sign an agreement that was put forward by American negotiators. President Trump said “we’ll bomb the s*** out of them tomorrow night.”
That’s what Trump vowed on Truth Social this morning, along with the ominous threat that U.S. forces will capture Kharg Island.
“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:
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, which is working out brilliantly for both Venezuela and the United States of America.
But taking Kharg Island, as The New American has reported, won’t be a cakewalk, as Israel First GOP Senator Lindsey Graham (S.C.) believes. It will require ground troops, which is likely the reason that U.S. Marines and elements of the 82nd Airborne Division are in the region. One analyst said seizing the island would entail a “grinding war of attrition.”
Iran Has No Interest in Quitting
How and why Iran continues striking U.S. forces if “most [of] its offensive capability [is] gone” and its military is a “complete and total mess,” as Trump wrote yesterday, is unclear.
Whatever the answer, former Green Beret Kent warned that Iran has no reason to quit the war. Why? They have the upper hand in the Strait of Hormuz (SOH).
“Iran believes they are winning — and they are not wrong to think they are,” Kent wrote yesterday:
Iran is exploiting powerful leverage, which we delivered to them: closing the SOH has obviously significantly hindered the flow of oil/gas, putting massive pressure on us and the global economy.
Today, President Trump announced that the U.S. Navy has secretly escorted 200 oil tankers out of the SOH. While this is positive news and may have helped temper rising oil prices somewhat, the impact is not substantial enough to prevent a major energy crisis. These 200 tankers transiting the SOH over the past 100 days represent only about 2% of the normal volume — roughly 10,000 ships every 100 days — prior to the war. Furthermore, the U.S. has to deploy major naval and air assets to keep the SOH open. This is not sustainable and works to Iran’s advantage in the long run: Iran can disrupt commerce through the strait with relatively little effort, while the U.S. must risk two carrier battle groups simply to move 2% of the normal amount of oil and gas.
As well, Iran’s “hardliners” don’t want a deal. They’ve squabbled with moderates, but U.S. forces killed the leading moderate, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and others at the beginning of the war. “We’ve used the cover of peace talks as a ruse to launch attacks on Iran on two separate occasions,” Kent said:
All of this bolstered the hardliners’ standpoint that we cannot be trusted in negotiations and that Iran had no choice but to fight.
Last, Kent opined, Israel continues to sabotage peace talks and has ignored Trump’s orders “to show restraint,” notably by continuing attacks in southern Lebanon. “Until President Trump takes away some U.S. military support from Israel, they will continue to sabotage any chance of a lasting peace,” Kent concluded.
