President Trump vowed to seize Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil export hub, as the regime intensified missile strikes against Arab states across the region.
“At some point in the not too distant future, we will be taking Kharg Island, and other oil infrastructure points, and assume total control of their Oil and Gas Markets, much like we have with Venezuela, which is working out brilliantly for both Venezuela and the United States of America,” President Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Thursday morning.
The loss of Kharg Island, located 26 miles off Iran’s coast, will deprive the regime of its oil revenue. Nearly 90% of Iran’s crude oil exports are processed through the 8-square-mile island.
In his early morning post, President Trump also threatened to strike Iran “very hard tonight” since the regime had lost most of its offensive and defensive capabilities after 14 weeks of conflict with the U.S. military.
The U.S. forces destroyed regime targets for the second consecutive day as Iran intensified missile strikes against Bahrain, Jordan and Kuwait.
U.S. “forces launched strikes on Iranian military surveillance capabilities, communication systems, and air defense sites across Iran,” CENTCOM disclosed on Wednesday evening. “U.S. Marine Corps, Air Force, and Navy assets fired precision munitions on Iranian targets that posed a threat to U.S. forces and international commercial ships transiting regional waters.”
Iran stepped up its aerial attacks on the neighboring Arab states and U.S. military assets in the region. According to the BBC, Iran fired “a round of strikes targeting US military assets across the region in Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan.”
The British broadcaster added:
Meanwhile, Bahrain’s interior ministry said its air raid sirens were activated and that falling shrapnel from intercepted Iranian drones had damaged homes and vehicles in the capital, Manama, and Hamad Town. (…)
Kuwait’s Army posted on X that its anti-air defence systems intercepted “hostile aerial targets”.
Kuwait said it had temporarily closed its airspace due to the Iranian attacks, before reopening it early on Thursday.
For the first time since the ceasefire took effect, Iran fired missiles at Jordan. “Jordan’s military says it had intercepted 20 missiles launched from Iran, after Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced it had fired at a US command center in the kingdom,” The Times of Israel reported Thursday morning.
Amid escalating Iranian attacks on Gulf states, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that the U.S. will unlock frozen regime funds to cover the damages.
“The Iranian regime will lose the zero-sum game it is playing,” he wrote on X. “Any damage it inflicts on our allies in the Gulf will be paid for with funds extracted from Iranian Accounts.”
Iran indicated that the ceasefire, which took effect on April 8, may have ended. The Iranian Foreign Ministry said that the recent escalation has “rendered the ceasefire practically meaningless.” The regime, in a statement on Friday, also claimed that the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s busiest waterways, was “closed until further notice.”
NBC News declared the ceasefire with Iran to be “effectively dead.”
“It’s safe to say that the ceasefire is effectively dead and has now been replaced by negotiations under fire,” the broadcaster wrote.
Update: Trump halts strikes, cites possible deal; Iranian regime media denies claim
President Trump reportedly halted strikes against Iran, suggesting that a deal has been finalized.
“President Trump announced that he canceled planned strikes against Iran on Thursday and claimed Iran’s leadership “approved” a draft agreement that would extend the ceasefire, reopen the Strait of Hormuz and launch 60 days of negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program,” Axios reported Thursday afternoon.
Sources close to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) rejected the claim.
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