Iran's Kharg Island key to its oil exports. Targeting it carries major risks - The Korea Times

A satellite image shows an oil terminal at Kharg Island, Iran, Feb. 25. 2026 Planet Labs PBC/Handout via Reuters-Yonhap

Iran's Kharg Island, home to a terminal through which the country exports most of its oil, has emerged as a focus of the war launched in late February 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. An assault 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.

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.

Then on Thursday, Trump sai,in a social media post that the U.S. would “assume total control” of Iran’s oil and gas industries, including the Kharg Island terminal , in the “not too distant future.”