Iran’s Kharg Island is key to its oil exports. Targeting it carries major risks

Iran’s Kharg Island, home to a terminal through which the country exports most of its oil, has emerged as a focus of the month-old war launched by the United States and Israel.

Strikes on oil infrastructure on Kharg — or a ground invasion — would severely curb Iran’s oil exports, a key source of revenue for the Islamic Republic. It would also mark a major escalation that could provoke even heavier retaliatory attacks on Gulf Arab infrastructure and further drive up oil prices. The skyrocketing cost of fuel is already threatening the world economy.

A U.S. occupation of the island would put American troops in a stationary position just 33 kilometers (21 miles) off Iran’s coast, well within range of its arsenal of drones and missiles.

Other islands near the vital Strait of Hormuz could also be targeted. Abu Musa and the Greater and Lesser Tunb islands are held by Iran but long claimed by the United Arab Emirates, a close U.S. ally. Qeshm Island is home to a desalination plant.

Here’s a look at the islands and their importance in the war.

Kharg Island

The small coral island houses the terminal through which nearly all of Iran’s oil exports pass. Iran has continued to export oil, mainly to China, through the Strait of Hormuz even as its attacks have closed the vital waterway to most traffic.

The destruction or loss of the island would deny the government a major revenue source, but it would also remove even more oil from world markets at a time of soaring prices. The destruction of the terminal would severely damage Iran’s economy and would also undermine any future government that might emerge.

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U.S. President Donald Trump said strikes in mid-March “obliterated” Kharg’s military assets but did not target the island’s oil infrastructure. He warned that if Iran continued disrupting traffic through the Strait of Hormuz he would reconsider the decision to spare energy targets on the island.

Iran has continued to exert control over the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s traded oil passed before the war. The U.S. has meanwhile sent thousands of soldiers and Marines to the region.

Kharg Island has storage tanks and housing for thousands of workers. Gazelles roam freely near the refineries and depots. It also is home to a medieval Portuguese fortress and the ruins of one of the oldest Christian monasteries in the Persian Gulf.

Abu Musa and Greater and Lesser Tunb

The three tiny Persian Gulf islands guarding the approach to the Strait of Hormuz have long been a source of tensions between Iran and the United Arab Emirates.

Iranian forces seized the islands in November 1971, days after the United Kingdom withdrew from the Gulf and just before the formation of the UAE. Iran maintains military assets and garrisons on the islands, and has staged military drills there.

Iran says the islands have been part of Persian states from antiquity up until they were occupied by the British in the early 20th century. The UAE claims all three islands.

Qeshm Island

The largest island in the Persian Gulf sits near the Strait of Hormuz and is home to about 150,000 people. Iran said the U.S. struck a desalination plant on the island on March 8 — a claim not acknowledged by Washington. The desalination plant supplied water to about 30 villages.