What is Kharg Island? US mulls targeting backbone of Iran's oil exports

Kharg’s cruciality for Iran’s economy puts it in a dangerous spot, particularly amid the ongoing war as the United States and Israel seek ways to weaken Iran.

Amid the ongoing conflict in West Asia with Iran actively engaged in war with the United States and Israel, sending oil prices soaring on Monday to as high as $119 a barrel, a small Iranian island, Kharg, finds itself on US President Donald Trump’s radar.

Situated in the Persian Gulf, just around 24 kilometers off mainland Iran’s coast, the Kharg Island is a small yet crucial piece of land for Iran (NASA science)

Apart from mulling sending special operation units into Iran to get hold of its stockpile of highly enriched Uranium to prevent it from making a nuclear weapon, the United States has also considered taking control of the Kharg Island, which is a key oil export terminal in the Persian Gulf and is responsible for around 90 per cent of Iran’s crude oil exports, reported Axios citing unnamed US administration officials.

However, even though Kharg island serves as the backbone of Iran’s oil exports, it has so far managed to not be targeted in the ongoing war.

What is Kharg Island and why is it important?

Situated in the Persian Gulf, just around 24 kilometers off mainland Iran’s coast, the Kharg Island is a small yet crucial piece of land for Iran as around 90 per cent of its crude exports reportedly pass through the island before going through the Strait of Hormuz. The island also boasts a huge loading capacity of around 7 million barrels a day, according to a report by CNBC.

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Kharg’s cruciality for Iran’s economy puts it in a dangerous spot, particularly amid the ongoing war as the United States and Israel seek ways to weaken Iran. However, seizing control of the island would only be possible if the US and Israel send ground troops into Iran, the CNBC report cited analysts as saying.

While the United States does not yet seem keen on sending ground troops to Iran, President Trump has not ruled out the possibility of such an action. On Saturday, Trump told reporters that deploying ground troops is a possibility but only “for a very good reason”.

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"If we ever did that, [the Iranians] would be so decimated that they wouldn't be able to fight on the ground level," Trump had said. "At some point maybe we will. We haven't gone after it. We wouldn't do it now. Maybe we will do it later,” he added when asked whether the US would consider ground troops to take control of Iran’s nuclear material, reported Axios.

Even as Kharg has found its way back into the spotlight due to the ongoing war in Iran, the island is no stranger to threats and has been targeted before. In the 1980s during the war between Iran and Iraq, the island repeatedly became a target of Saddam Hussein’s forces. However, Iran continued to export oil through that.