Trump: One Word Could End Iran Oil Exports on Kharg Island

President Donald Trump said Monday it would take "just one simple word" for the United States to destroy the oil infrastructure on Iran's Kharg Island, which handles roughly 90% of the Islamic Republic's crude exports.

On Friday night, the U.S. targeted Iranian military facilities on the five-mile-long coral island about 15 miles off mainland Iran in the northern Persian Gulf.

But Trump said Monday, after a meeting of the board of the Trump-Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, that the U.S. deliberately spared the island's oil infrastructure to preserve it for a future democratic government.

"As you know, we attacked Kharg Island and knocked it … literally destroyed everything on the island except for the area where the oil is," Trump said in remarks that aired live on Newsmax and the free Newsmax2 streaming platform. "I call it the pipes. We left the pipes.

"We didn't want to do that, but we will do that. We can do that on five minutes' notice; it will be over. But for purposes of someday rebuilding that country, I guess we did the right thing. But it may not stay that way. Just one simple word, and the pipes will be gone, too. But it will take a long time to rebuild that."

An attack on Iran's sanctioned oil industry, particularly the facilities on Kharg Island, would almost immediately halt millions of barrels of crude shipments to countries such as China and deprive Tehran of critical revenue. The island has a loading capacity of about 7 million barrels a day, making it a crucial gateway for Iran's energy exports.

Kharg Island has been central to Iran's oil industry for roughly six decades. Iran began linking mainland oil fields to the island by pipeline in the early 1950s, starting with a connection to the Gachsaran oil field that made Kharg a primary export point.

Construction of storage tanks and other infrastructure began in 1956, and a long pipeline to the island was completed in 1959. The deep-water oil terminal opened in 1960, allowing large tankers to load Iranian crude directly offshore.

During the oil boom of the 1960s and 1970s, Kharg was expanded in partnership with the U.S. company Amoco and the National Iranian Oil Company. By the early 1970s, it had become Iran's largest oil-loading terminal and one of the biggest offshore crude terminals in the world.

Iranian officials promised harsh repercussions should the U.S. or Israel target its oil infrastructure, but Trump said Tehran lacks the military capacity to carry out such threats.

Trump also said Iranian ballistic missile attacks and drone strikes have decreased by 90% and 95%, respectively, since the launch of Operation Epic Fury on Feb. 28.

He said U.S. operations aimed at reopening the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial commercial shipping lane in the Persian Gulf, remain on pace now that most of Iran's mine-laying vessels are "at the bottom of the sea."

Trump said U.S. forces destroyed more than 30 mine-laying ships in recent days, knocking out Tehran's entire fleet. Although he said the Iranians could use other vessels to booby-trap the strait, he warned such activity would be "a big negative for them."

"If they do it, it's a form of suicide," Trump said, adding he is pressing European and other Western nations to send peacekeeping forces into the region to ensure the shipping lane remains clear.

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