Donald Trump has stated on an new post on Truth Social that the United States will be hitting Iran "VERY HARD TONIGHT" and that "at some point in the not too distant future, we will be taking Kharg Island, and other oil infrastructure points, and assume total control of their Oil and Gas Markets". Trump compared it to what they did with Venezuela, "which is working out brilliantly for both Venezuela and the United States of America."
Kharg Island is a small island off the coast of Iran that has a major oil terminal, and 90% of export crude oil goes through the island, departing mostly to China. It is also considered as the economic lifeline of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), as reported by BBC.
The US has already attacked Kharg island before: on March 13 Trump said that air strikes "totally obliterated" all military targets in the island, and has used a possible attack on the island as a threat against Iran. In an interview with Fox News on Thursday, Trump said that the US "dropped $250m worth of bombs" last night and said that the US may not have the "stomach" for a military operation that may risk American lives. "I don't want to have boots on the ground, but if I wanted to, we could put a small group of soldiers and take over the whole place".
Despite talks of a ceasefire, continued attacks between Iran and United States, with US retaliating after a helicopter was shot down rendered the ceasefire "meaningless", according to what Tehran sources told Reuters. US strikes hit and Indian tanker off Oman and killed three Indian sailors.