Hundreds of U.S. Marines storm ashore as helicopters thunder overhead, Navy warships and fighter jets establish overwhelming air and sea superiority, and commanders issue one final warning to Iranian forces: surrender or be overrun.
That is how military experts envision the opening hours of a potential U.S. operation to seize Iran’s Kharg Islandâthe tiny but strategically vital island that handles roughly 90% of the Islamic Republic’s crude oil exports and has become the centerpiece of Washington’s economic pressure campaign against Tehran.
The scenario was thrust back into the spotlight Tuesday after President Donald Trump declined to rule out taking the island. “I can’t say that to you because if I did, it would be foolish,” Trump told Fox News chief foreign correspondent during an exclusive interview on Special Report when asked directly whether he planned to seize Kharg island. He added that previous U.S. strikes intentionally avoided the island’s oil facilities because they are “a chunk of the world economy.”
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“There are a lot of ways to skin this cat,” Vice Adm. (Ret.) Robert Harward, former deputy commander of U.S. Central Command, told Fox News Digital in an interview.
Harward explained a Marine Expeditionary Unit could conduct an amphibious assault while U.S. naval and air forces establish complete control over the battlespace, giving Iranian defenders an opportunity to surrender before major fighting begins. The goal, he said, would not simply be to capture the island but to preserve the oil infrastructure that could one day serve a post-Islamic Republic government.
“The real objective at the end of the day is to minimize risk,” said Harward. “Not only to your own forces, but to the people you’re coming in contact with,” while also limiting damage to facilities that could eventually be handed over to “a government of Iran that is focused on supporting its people, as opposed to proliferating the Islamic Revolution.”
Trump’s remarks echoed Harward’s assessment that preserving Kharg’s oil facilities would likely be a key military objective. Trump said he had instructed U.S. forces during previous strikes to “hit everything, but the oil,” explaining that damaging the export terminal could have significant consequences for the global economy.
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But military experts say capturing Kharg may be the easiest part of the mission.
Located just 16 miles off Iran’s Gulf coast, the eight-square-mile island sits well within range of Iranian missiles, drones and shore-based anti-ship weapons. While analysts believe U.S. forces could likely seize the island within hours, holding it against sustained retaliation from the nearby mainland could require a far larger and longer military commitmentâraising the risk of direct war with Iran itself.
Kharg’s strategic importance predates Iran’s modern oil industry. British forces briefly occupied the island during confrontations with Persia over Herat in 1838 and again during the Anglo-Persian War in 1856, using its location near the Iranian coast to apply pressure on Tehran. Nearly a century later, Iran sel
