US President Donald Trump said on Thursday (local time) that a potential operation to seize Iran’s key island of Kharg would be “off the table” if the two sides signed a deal to end the war, which he said could be reached “as early as this weekend.”
“Read also | Invade, baby, invade: Trump eyes Kharg Island, Iran’s energy tapThe Republican leader’s statement came days after he announced in a social media post that “at some point in the not-too-distant future” the United States would take control of Kharg, which processes 90% of the Islamic Republic’s total oil exports.“Now it would be ‘off the table’ if we signed this agreement,” he told reporters in the Oval Office when asked if the Kharg Island operation was off the table. “They were not thrilled when they heard that this is what I was appointed to. I don’t think I like it.”
Trump also pointed to oil-rich Venezuela, where US military intervention in January led to the ouster of its president, Nicolas Maduro. He claimed that “millions of barrels” of oil were being sent from the South American country to the United States.“Look at Venezuela, how well that’s been done. We’ve paid the price for that war many times over… Millions of barrels of oil from Venezuela go to Houston, and we work great with the Venezuelan government.
It couldn’t be better. It’s a really good relationship… Venezuela has been amazing. This is a bigger situation… We go to wars, we end up blowing up a lot of people and then we go home. “Nothing happens,” he added.Read also | “A big settlement soon in Europe”: Trump sees an imminent agreement with Iran, and Tehran has not nodded yetThe United States has struck Kharg Island twice during the current conflict.Meanwhile, Trump also noted that US forces have already moved ships and transported millions of barrels of oil through the Strait of Hormuz in recent months.
He added that the waterway would open “immediately,” perhaps by Saturday or Monday, avoiding describing it as a “deadline.”“The strait will open immediately. This signing will probably happen on Saturday or Monday. We think it will happen very quickly. I don’t want to set a deadline, because if I say a deadline, you will say, oh, he did not meet the deadline. It will be signed. The strait is open. But the strait has been open for several months already, and you did not know it.”
“I just announced yesterday that we have bought a lot of ships and millions and hundreds of millions of barrels of oil have been transported through them.”The Strait of Hormuz has been under a de facto Iranian blockade since early March in response to the US-Israeli strikes on February 28 that sparked conflict in the Middle East. About 20% of the world’s crude oil passes through this main sea route.
