U.S. President Donald Trump said during a telephone interview with NBC News broadcast yesterday, Saturday, that his country’s armed forces may re-bomb Iran’s Hargh island, a major oil export hub, while rejecting the possibility of a deal to end the war that erupted with the Feb. 28 U.S.-Israeli airstrikes because “the terms are not good enough yet.”
The Republican told the network that although the bombing “completely demolished” Hargh Island, “”we may hit it a few more times for fun.”
He also said it was not clear whether Iran’s armed forces had laid mines in the Strait of Hormuz yet.
He also said he “hears” that Iran’s new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei may not be alive, which he described as a “rumor.”
Reuters news agency reported yesterday that Donald Trump’s administration has rejected attempts to start negotiations to end the war.
The US president is calling on other countries to send warships to guarantee security in the Strait of Hormuz
Donald Trump yesterday (Saturday) pressed other countries to deploy warships to guarantee security in the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic sea route that has been paralysed by the US and Israel’s war against Iran.
Two weeks after the war broke out on February 28, with one of the first bombings claiming the life of Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, there is no sign of a de-escalation.
The Middle East fire has caused oil prices to shoot up as Iran imposes an almost complete blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, when under normal circumstances 20% of hydrocarbons passing through it are destined for international markets.
The warring sides have been exchanging daily attacks and threatening statements as the death toll has exceeded 2.000 dead, mostly in Iran and Lebanon, according to official figures.
Asserting that the US military has “defeated and decimated Iran, both militarily and economically,” Donald Trump also called via Truth Social for countries that supply crude through the Strait of Hormuz to “guarantee the security of its passage” by sending warships promising help from his military.
“Many countries will send warships, in cooperation with the United States, to keep the strait open and secure,” the US president said. Just a day earlier he assured that, “very soon”, the US navy would escort oil tankers passing through the strait.
“Hopefully China, France, Japan, South Korea, South Korea, Britain and others will send ships to the region so that the Strait of Hormuz is no longer threatened by a country completely decapitated,” he added.
Holes in the “American umbrella”
The US military has “completely wiped out” any military targets on Harg Island, some 30 kilometres off the Iranian coast, where the main Iranian oil export terminal is located, always according to US President Trump.
Some 15 explosions were heard there yesterday (Saturday), but according to Iran’s FARS news agency, no oil infrastructure was damaged.
The US President has, however, threatened to target them if “free and safe passage of ships” in the Strait of Hormuz is not restored, and in an interview with NBC News yesterday, he said his military could hit Harg Island “a few more times” for “fun”.
Iran will target US companies operating in the Middle East if its energy infrastructure is bombed, Iranian diplomatic chief Abbas Araghchi countered.
This latter at the same time called on countries in the region to “kick out” US armed forces from their territories, judging that the “supposed American security umbrella” does not protect them but exposes them to danger.
Last night the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological army of the Islamic Republic, announced that they had launched a barrage of missiles against US forces stationed at the Prince Sultan Air Base near Riyadh.
The attack was not confirmed by Saudi authorities, who however said they intercepted six missiles targeting Al Harj, where the base is located.
The radar system at Kuwait’s international airport was hit in parallel last night by unmanned aerial vehicles, the emirate’s authorities said, closing its airspace until further notice.
The United Arab Emirates, for its part, stressed that it reserves “the right to defend itself” against Iranian strikes but continues to opt for “restraint,” an adviser to the Emirati president, Anwar Gargas, said last Saturday night via X, adding that the country is continuing its efforts to find a “solution” to end the war.
The US embassy in Baghdad was targeted for a second time in the early hours of yesterday morning after airstrikes on an armed group affiliated with Tehran, according to sources in the security forces in Iraq. The embassy has instructed any Americans still in the country to leave “now.”
Last night, a military base at Baghdad International Airport, which until very recently hosted forces of the Washington-led international anti-jihadist coalition, was in turn targeted by a drone strike, according to two sources in the Iraqi security forces.
In international markets, the price of a barrel of North Sea Brent oil, the benchmark variety, has risen 42% and is now hovering around $100 since the war broke out.
A missile strike last night on an industrial sector in central Iran’s Isfahan killed 15 people, according to the FARS news agency.
State television IRIB then reported that a new volley of missiles had been fired at Israel.
“No problem with the supreme leader”
In Lebanon, another theatre of war, hammered by Israel, which says it is targeting the Shiite Hezbollah movement pro-Tehran, the government said it wants to form a delegation to negotiate with that of Benjamin Netanyahu an end to hostilities, according to an official source in Beirut.
For its part, the Shiite movement spoke last night of fighting in the midst of a standoff with the Israeli army in Hia’am, southern Lebanon.
After two weeks of uninterrupted operations, the US and Israel assert that they have weakened Iranian power.
While leaders of the Islamic Republic attended a public rally the day before yesterday (Friday) in the heart of Tehran, Mojtaba Khamenei, the new supreme leader who succeeded his father on March 8 and was reportedly injured in a bombing, has yet to make a public appearance.
U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said Friday that he has been “injured” and possibly “disfigured.” U.S. President Trump told NBC News that he “hears” he may not be alive, but called the information a “rumor.”
“There is no problem with the new supreme leader,” Iranian Foreign Minister Araghchi assured yesterday, however, that he is “exercising his duties in accordance with the constitution.”
Following an unprecedented deployment of forces after decades, the US is planning to send in new reinforcements, including Marines, suggesting that an operation to take over Hargh island could be under consideration, according to reports in the US press.
Evidence of growing skepticism that the war will end soon: two rounds of the F1 Grand Prix, scheduled to be held on April 10-12 in Saudi Arabia and April 17-19 in Saudi Arabia, have been cancelled.
