The US is considering the occupation or blockade of Iran’s Kharg island to put pressure on the Islamic republic to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The plan was reported by Axios on Friday, citing four unnamed sources.
The strait, the conduit for 20 per cent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas, has been shut by Iran since the US and Israel attacked it three weeks ago.
This week the US said it destroyed Iranian military assets on Kharg island, which processes 90 per cent of Iran’s crude oil exports.
According to Reuters, Washington is deploying thousands of additional marines and sailors to the Middle East. The reports follow a recent refusal by US president Donald Trump to rule out the possibility of deploying ground troops in Iran.
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The International Energy Agency executive director Fatih Birol warned in an interview with the Financial Times on Friday that it could take up to six months to restore oil and gas flows from the Gulf, saying the world is facing what could be the most severe energy crisis in history.
“It will be six months for some [sites] to be operational, others much longer,” he said.
On Friday, as the war approached its fourth week, US and Israeli forces carried out strikes in the strait and at Bandar Lengeh port in southern Iran, destroying Iranian naval vessels and commercial boats. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it struck Iranian regime targets near Nur, east of Tehran.
Iran confirmed that Republican Guard spokesman Ali Mohammad Naini and his deputy were killed in a joint US-Israeli strike.
The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said 1,394 civilians, including 210 children, have been killed in Iran since the conflict began.
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Speaking at the White House, Trump said Iran’s navy, air force, anti-aircraft, radar and leaders “are all gone”.
“Now nobody wants to be a leader over there any more,” he added. “We are wanting to talk to them but we have nobody to talk to. We like it that way.”
Writing on social media, Trump called Washington’s Nato allies cowards for failing to help secure the Strait of Hormuz. “They didn’t want to join the fight to stop a Nuclear Powered Iran. Now that fight is Militarily WON, they complain about the high oil prices they are forced to pay, but don’t want to help open the Strait of Hormuz ... COWARDS, and we will REMEMBER!”
The British government gave authorisation on Friday for the US to use military bases in Britain to carry out strikes on Iranian missile sites that are attacking ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
Iranian state television read out a written message from supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei, calling on intelligence services to target “enemies at home and abroad” to avenge Israel’s assassination of intelligence minister Esmail Khatib earlier this week.
Khamenei is believed to have been injured on the first day of the war and has not been seen in public since he was appointed to replace his assassinated father as Iran’s top cleric.
[ Trump says he told Israel to not repeat strikes on Iranian energy infrastructureOpens in new window ]
Iranian rocket fire has focused disproportionately on Jerusalem on Thursday and Friday. Sirens blared four times in one hour after midnight on Thursday. On Friday a missile landed in the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem’s old city, just 350m from the Al-Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount, which is revered by Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif or noble sanctuary.
Tensions were already high in Jerusalem after Israel kept the Al-Aqsa mosque closed to worshippers on the start of Eid al-Fitr, marking the first such closure on the Muslim holiday since 1967. The closure, imposed under restrictions banning large gatherings during the war, drew criticism across the Arab and Muslim world.
France on Friday offered to facilitate direct talks between Israel and Lebanon.
The IDF said more than 2,000 Iran-allied Hizbullah targets have been hit since fighting in Lebanon began at the start of March. In southern Lebanon, Israeli troops continued to expand their ground manoeuvre, ordering civilians south of the Zahrani river to leave the area.
– Additional reporting: Reuters
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