(Staff post from THE NEW ARAB NEWS on 07 March 2026.)
A
tiny island in the Persian Gulf could be Trump’s secret weapon against Iran. Kharg
island holds 94 per cent of Iran’s oil exports and could choke off the
country’s economy for years: American
analysts have floated the possibility of the US military seizing control of
Iran's largest oil export terminal on Kharg Island: Left is the satellite view
of Kharg Island, which hosts Iran's largest oil export terminal.
A
senior US official vowed to take control of Iran's oil on Friday as the
devastating regional conflict triggered by the US-Israeli war on Iran neared
its second week. "What we want to
do is to get such massive oil reserves in Iran out of the hands of
terrorists," White House advisor Jarrod Agen said in an interview with Fox
Business.
"Ultimately, we’re not going to have to worry about these issues in the Strait of Hormuz," he said, referring to the strategic Gulf chokepoint vital for global energy. We’re going to get all of the oil out of the hands of terrorists," the official said.
Agen compared Iran to Venezuela, which has effectively handed control of its oil industry to US energy companies following Washington's capture of President Nicolas Maduro. US President Donald Trump has so far refrained from commenting on Iran's substantial natural resources, which include the world's third-largest oil reserves and control of over half of the world's biggest gas field.
Agen's comments come amid discussions about a potential attempt by the US military to seize control of Kharg Island, which hosts Iran's largest oil export terminal. The island, located in the Gulf about 30 kilometres off the Iranian mainland, facilitates as much as 90 percent of the country's oil exports and is vital for Iran's economy. Michael Rubin, a senior fellow at the right-wing American Enterprise Institute, has described seizing the island as a "no-brainer" for the US.
aking
control of the country's energy resources could allow the administration to
further choke the Iranian government's revenues, he told The Washington Post. This
comes as US news media indicated that Trump is moving closer towards deploying
ground troops inside Iran – a move he has long publicly ruled out.
NBC
News reported on Friday that the US president has "expressed serious
interest" in sending US troops into Iran during private conversations. Two
sources told the broadcaster that Trump is not considering a large-scale
invasion but the deployment of a small unit of troops to conduct strategic
operations on the ground, according to the report.
