Trump says he can ‘take the oil from Iran’ as he considers seizing Kharg Island
President Trump has said the US may seize Iran’s oil – as he contemplates a campaign to capture one of the Islamic Republic’s strongest assets.
The commander-in-chief suggested the approach could be similar to the ouster of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro that saw the US restrict oil exports.
“To be honest with you, my favorite thing is to take oil from Iran, but some stupid people back in the US say: ‘why are you doing that?’ But they are stupid people,” he told the Financial Times Sunday.
Oil prices continued to rise on Monday – the price of Brent crude reached $116 per barrel, the highest since March 19.
President Trump also did not decide on an operation that would make the US military seize Kharg Island – a critical port where almost 90 percent of Iran’s oil exports are processed.
“Maybe we are.” [will] take Kharg Island, maybe we don’t. There are many things we can choose,” he said.
“It will also mean that we have to be there [on the island] temporarily.”
Trump said the US could take Kharg Island “very easily,” saying: “I don’t think they have any defenses.”
Earlier this month, the president boasted that US airstrikes had eliminated all military targets on the island, one-third the size of Manhattan.
Iran has strengthened its defenses of Kharg Island by planting anti-armor mines around it and along the coast, sources told CNN last week.
The regime has also withdrawn troops as it prepares for a possible US attack.
An Israeli source previously warned that a ground attack would result in American casualties.
“The hope is that they will not take that risk and shoot at the oil fields, but there is no way of knowing,” they told the Jerusalem Post.
More than 3,500 US troops have arrived in the Middle East – and Iran has said it is waiting for an attack.
“The enemy, obviously, is sending messages of dialogue and negotiations, but secretly they are planning an attack on the world,” warned Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of the Iranian parliament, according to IRNA.
Washington “doesn’t know that our men are waiting for the American military to come down to burn them and punish their regional partners forever,” he said.
Trump has temporarily suspended attacks on Iran’s energy infrastructure until April 6.
He says the ceasefire talks are “going very well” but stopped short of saying an agreement would be reached.
“I think we’re going to make a deal with them, for sure, but we probably won’t,” he told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday.
“You can’t know Iran, because we negotiate with them and then we have to blow them up.”
Iran strongly rejected the proposed 15-point ceasefire plan put forward by the US last week.
