Trump says US ‘obliterated every military target’ on Iran’s Kharg Island, oil infrastructure spared for now

By Jacob Magid

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and AP 14 March 2026, 1:06 am

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This handout image taken by the European Space Agency, captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite, shows a view of Iran's Kharg Island, which hosts the country's main crude export terminal and is responsible for the overwhelming majority of its oil shipments to the world, about 30 kilometers south of the mainland in the north of the Gulf, on March 7, 2026. (European Space Agency/AFP)

US President Donald Trump announces that American forces “totally obliterated every MILITARY target in Iran’s crown jewel, Kharg Island.

“For reasons of decency, I have chosen NOT to wipe out the Oil Infrastructure on the Island. However, should Iran, or anyone else, do anything to interfere with the free and safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz, I will immediately reconsider this decision,” Trump writes on Truth Social.

“Iran has NO ability to defend anything that we want to attack — There is nothing they can do about it!” he declares.

“Iran will NEVER have a nuclear weapon, nor will it have the ability to threaten the United States of America, the Middle East or, for that matter, the world!”

Trump urges Iran’s security forces to lay down their arm “and save what’s left of their country, which isn’t much!”

Asked during a Fox News Radio interview — which was recorded Thursday night and aired Friday morning — whether he is thinking about seizing the island, the president says it’s “not high on the list” but also he could “change my mind in seconds.”

The question appears to touch a nerve, eliciting scorn as Trump calls it a question that shouldn’t be asked.

“Who’d ask a question like that, and what fool would answer it?” he says. “Let’s say I was going to do it or let’s say I wasn’t going to do it, why would I tell you?”