President Donald Trump and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth have adopted a rather blunt new communications strategy when it comes to U.S. operations against Iran: we are going to tell you exactly what we are going to do, and there is nothing you can do to stop us.
On Thursday morning, Trump said, “The United States will be hitting Iran (Whose Navy, Air Force, Radar, Anti Aircraft, and all other forms of Defense, together with most of its offensive capability, are GONE!), VERY HARD TONIGHT,” and he did the same thing on Wednesday, prior to U.S. strikes.
Telegraphing impending operations is a rarity for the U.S. military, which goes to extraordinary lengths to hide operational details to ensure the safety of those carrying them out. Just this week, an Iranian drone hit a U.S. Army Apache helicopter, though both operators are in stable condition and were rescued about two hours after going down.
Both the president and secretary did the same thing on Wednesday.
“Central Command will be busy tonight because President Trump said we will be hitting Iran hard, and we will be,” Hegseth said. “They’ve been ‘tap, tap, tapping’ on the deal. Instead, they’re gonna have tap, tap, tap bombs dropping on key facilities in Iran from the United States of America!”
Trump also warned on Thursday that “at some point in the not too distant future,” the United States will try to take “Kharg Island, and other oil infrastructure points, and assume total control of their Oil and Gas Markets.”
Kharg Island is located less than 20 miles off the coast of Iran in the Persian Gulf, and it typically handles roughly 90% of the country’s crude oil exports. U.S. forces have already targeted Kharg Island’s military infrastructure as a warning earlier in the war, but they have, thus far, refrained from major strikes against its oil infrastructure over fears of global economic disruptions and possible escalation and retaliation.
Trump subsequently backed off on the impending strikes later Thursday, citing “discussions with the Islamic Republic of Iran [that] have been brought to the highest level of Iranian leadership and approved,” but Iranian officials have not affirmed that the two sides are on the precipice of a breakthrough.
It’s unclear if the military operations Trump called off would have been an operation to take Kharg Island, which would have been an escalation and likely would have resulted in additional Iranian attacks.
Joe Costa, a former senior Pentagon official now with the Atlantic Council, told the Washington Examiner: “The threat to strike the energy infrastructure of Kharg island is designed to gain leverage in negotiations, as Kharg handles about 90% of Iran’s crude oil exports.
“Destroying these facilities would have massive economic implications for Iran,” Costa said. “While Iran has fortified Kharg with air defenses, underground storage, and hardened infrastructure, the U.S. previously struck military sites on the island and unquestionably has the capability to take Kharg offline, which could be done from the air.”
Kharg Island is west of the Strait of Hormuz, making it unlikely that the U.S. seizure of it would fundamentally alter the number of vessels transiting the strait. There are other islands off Iran’s coast closer to the strait that could be better suited if the goal of the operation is to reopen the strait, but holding Kharg Island would give the U.S. leverage in negotiations because of Iran’s reliance on it for its oil business.
“Kharg Island is not of significant value in reopening the Strait of Hormuz in the sense that it doesn’t give the military leverage and aid to set up air defense systems, which is what some of the islands around the elbow of the Strait of Hormuz would provide,” Seth Jones, president of the Defense and Security Department at the Center for Strategic and International Studies told the Washington Examiner.
Holding and maintaining a presence on Kharg Island will be a difficult task for U.S. forces, which will need to ensure the protection of the troops involved in the mission. Such an operation would almost certainly lead to an Iranian response and possibly an escalation.
Trump indicated that such a mission could incur U.S. casualties, as they have frequently come under attack from Iranian missiles and drones, as have Gulf and Middle Eastern countries that host U.S. bases.
“My preference has always been take Kharg Island,” Trump told Fox & Friends Thursday morning. “I don’t know that America has the stomach for it, to be honest with you.”
US SAYS IT HAS COMPLETED STRIKES ON IRAN IN RESPONSE TO APACHE SHOOTDOWN
Despite the president’s remarks, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) told reporters on Thursday that he “would not put much stock” in Trump’s remarks.
Iran has killed seven American service members during the war, while six others died in a refueling accident.