Washington, March 30 – US President Donald Trump said that he wants to "seize Iranian oil" and could seize Kharg Island, the country's oil export hub.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Trump said, "To be honest, my favorite thing is to seize Iranian oil," comparing the US move to Venezuela, where Washington intends to control the oil industry "indefinitely" after it forcibly seized President Nicolas Maduro in January, according to Xinhua news agency.
Seizing Iranian oil would involve seizing Kharg Island, through which over 90 per cent of Iran's oil is exported, the Financial Times reported, warning that such an "operation" risks causing casualties and prolonging the war.
"Maybe we seize Kharg Island, maybe we don't. We have a lot of options," Trump reportedly said. "It would also mean we would have to be there for a while."
He added that he believed Iran had little or no defense on the island. "We could seize it very easily," he said.
Trump's remarks came as he was increasing the US military buildup in the Middle East while considering a military operation to extract nearly 1,000 pounds of uranium from Iran, according to US officials.
He has also encouraged his advisors to pressure Iran to agree to surrender the material as a condition for ending the war, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing an anonymous source familiar with Trump's thinking.
The Pentagon is reportedly deploying up to 10,000 additional ground troops to the region, with the US Central Command announcing Saturday that over 3,500 troops, including 2,500 Marines, had arrived in the Middle East.
Despite the threat, Trump noted that indirect talks between the United States and Iran via Pakistani "intermediaries" were making progress. "A deal could be made fairly quickly," he said.
Oil prices have surged since the United States and Israel launched massive attacks on Iran on February 28, with Brent crude rising as high as $119.5 a barrel in March, the highest since June 2022.
