Kharg Island | Pakistan

A scrubby island in the Gulf that is roughly one third the size of Manhattan, Kharg Island is the nerve centre of the Iranian oil industry — and at the heart of US President Donald Trump’s latest efforts to pressure Tehran. On Monday, Trump vowed that a failure by Iran to agree a deal to end the war could see the United States “completely obliterating” the export hub. A day earlier, he had said the United States could take the island, eyed by the Pentagon for ground operations, “very easily”. So what are Trump’s options, and how might Iran react if he presses on this pressure point? What is Kharg Island? It may be a mere scrap of land, but Kharg handles around 90 per cent of Iran’s crude exports, according to a report by US bank JP Morgan. Located in the north of the Gulf, around 30 kilometres from the Iranian coast and more than 500km from the Strait of Hormuz, it has no oil wells. But it has Iran’s largest oil terminal, oil pipelines, storage tanks and related infrastructure. It also has military facilities...

On the 15th day of the US-Israel war against Iran, strategic signalling between the warring sides intensified after American forces struck Kharg Island, Iran’s principal oil export hub, while Tehran and its regional allies increased pressure across multiple theatres stretching from the Gulf to Iraq and Lebanon. US aircraft conducted strikes on Kharg Island on the night of March 13, targeting what Washington described as military facilities associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy. The attacks reportedly hit a short airstrip, air defence positions, docks linked to the Joushan naval base, a control tower and helicopter hangars. Iranian state media acknowledged damage but said air defences were restored shortly afterwards and confirmed that oil export infrastructure was deliberately spared. Reports on Saturday afternoon suggested that oil exports from Kharg Island remained unaffected and at least two ships had docked for loading. US President Donald Trump described the raid as one of the most “...