US President Trump is working to form a coalition of countries to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to shipping – and hopes to announce it by the end of this week, four sources told Axios.
But if the tankers remain stranded in the Persian Gulf, US officials say Trump is also considering seizing Iran’s strategic oil depot on Kharg Island, an operation that would require the presence of US troops on the ground.
As long as the blockade remains in place and Gulf oil exports are limited, Trump could not end the war even if he wanted to, a source familiar with the situation said. On board Air Force One, Trump told reporters that he “demands” that NATO countries and other oil-importing nations, including China, help the United States secure the strait. Trump is attracted to the idea of fully seizing Kharg Island because it would constitute “an economic knockout blow for the regime,” meaning a substantial defunding of Tehran, a US official said. But this move would require sending troops to the field and could trigger Iranian retaliatory attacks on oil facilities and pipelines in Gulf countries, particularly Saudi Arabia. “There are great risks. There are great rewards. The president is not ready yet and we are not saying he will be,” the official said. Senator Lindsey Graham, an avowed anti-Iran hawk, applauded Trump’s “decision to bring war to Kharg Island” and said Iran’s economy will be “annihilated” if it loses control of the oil hub. “Rarely in war does an enemy give you a single objective like Kharg Island, which could dramatically alter the outcome of the conflict,” he wrote on X. “Whoever controls Kharg Island, controls the fate of this war.”
