Why is Kharg Island important? What to know about the Iranian island struck by the U.S.
President Trump said the U.S. military “totally obliterated” all military targets on Kharg Island in large-scale precision strikes Friday, propelling the small, strategic island into the global spotlight.
Just 32 kilometers from Iran’s northern Gulf coast, Kharg Island is the hub of Iranian oil exports and a key bargaining chip that Trump plans to use to keep the Strait of Hormuz open and secure.
The president said U.S. forces had avoided the island’s oil export infrastructure, but warned Iran that if they “do anything to interfere with the free and safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz, I would immediately reconsider this decision.”
Here’s what you need to know about the heavily fortified island and why it is of strategic value.
What is Kharg Island?
Kharg Island lies about 20 miles off the northern coast of the Iranian Gulf. For decades, it has been Iran’s main oil export terminal, historically handling 85 to 95 percent of the country’s crude exports.
Tankers refuel on the island before crossing the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz. If the island’s loading facilities were destroyed, Iran’s ability to export oil would collapse almost immediately. Oil revenues, derived mainly from the sale of crude to China, remain one of the Islamic Republic’s most important sources of financing.
Strikes on oil infrastructure would constitute a massive escalation of the war that could send global oil markets into panic, and threats to the island would put pressure on Tehran’s energy system.
How could the strikes threaten Iran’s energy system?
Iran threatens global energy markets by keeping the Strait of Hormuz closed to most traffic, but the strikes on Kharg Island show that the United States can influence Iran.
National security analyst Aaron MacLean told CBS on Saturday morning that Mr. Trump had shown he had leverage if Iran kept the strait closed. About 20% of the world’s oil reserves pass through the waterway.
“The president linked the vulnerability of Kharg Island to Iran’s continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz,” MacLean said.
Oil and gas prices have skyrocketed since the start of the war. An exit from 172 million barrels of the United States’ strategic petroleum reserve has failed to calm investors, and the price of oil barrel of crude oil surpassed $100 for the first time in years on Thursday.
Kharg Island has already been a target
This is not the first time that the island of Kharg has been at the center of a war. During the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s, Saddam Hussein sent Iraqi planes to bomb the island several times in an effort to choke off Iran’s oil revenues. The facilities were badly damaged, but Iran continued to repair them and exports continued.
Since then, Tehran has heavily fortified Kharg, building air defenses, hardened infrastructure and underground storages designed to keep oil flowing even in the face of sustained attack.
Although Iran cannot compete with the United States or Israel in conventional military terms, it has spent decades preparing for asymmetric warfare. If Kharg Island were seriously threatened, Tehran would likely respond on several fronts. The Iranian military could continue to strike U.S. bases in the Gulf, step up attacks by allied militias in Iraq and elsewhere, and continue to strike shipping in the Strait of Hormuz using fast attack boats, naval mines and suicide drones.
Iran’s response would not overcome a superior military force, but would make operations in the Gulf painful and costly.
