US President Donald Trump said Sunday that he would like to “take the oil in Iran” and is considering seizing the export hub of Kharg Island, which is responsible for more than 90% of Iranian oil exports.
Trump raises prospect of taking Iran’s oil and weighs seizing Kharg Island
NEW YORK, Mar 30 (APP):US President Donald Trump said Sunday that he would like to “take the oil in Iran” and is considering seizing the export hub of Kharg Island, which is responsible for more than 90% of Iranian oil exports.
“To be honest with you, my favourite thing is to take the oil in Iran but some stupid people back in the US say: ‘why are you doing that?’ But they’re stupid people,” the president said in an interview with The Financial Times.
Trump compared his plans in Iran to the takeover in Venezuela earlier this year, after which Trump sought to assert control of the oil industry through a partnership with senior figures in the existing power structure.
“Maybe we take Kharg Island, maybe we don’t. We have a lot of options,” Trump said in the Sunday interview with The Financial Times.
Iran has effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, where a fifth of the world’s oil supply passes through daily, causing chaos in the global energy markets.
It is hitting Asian economies particularly hard, given their reliance on oil from the Middle East. But the pain is being felt in the United States, too, with gas prices at their highest level in years.
US lawmakers in both parties have raised fears of a “forever war” in Iran and have raised concerns about the growing toll on U.S. forces and weapons stockpiles.
The Pentagon has deployed thousands of Marines and sailors toward Iran in recent days, at the same time that Trump has tried to open negotiations with senior Iranian officials.
“A deal could be made fairly quickly,” he told The Financial Times.
The White House did not immediately comment on the interview.
Trump declined Sunday to offer specific details about whether a ceasefire deal could be reached in the coming days to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway used to move about 20% of the world’s oil exports.
“We’ve got about 3,000 targets left — we’ve bombed 13,000 targets — and another couple of thousand targets to go,” Trump said in the Financial Times interview. “A deal could be made fairly quickly.”
