Name: Trump says U.S. forces have destroyed the military assets of Kharg Island
Uploaded: 2026-03-14T23:02:15.000Z
Duration: 5 min 17 s
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We're following breaking news in the war with Iran.

President Trump posting moments ago the US has, quote, obliterated every military target on an Iranian island.

I want to get right to NBC's Garrett Hake at the White House.

Tom, the President says these military targets on Carg island have all been destroyed.

Kharg island is a critical piece of Iran's oil infrastructure.

It is far, I guess you would call it up in the north of the Persian Gulf, north of the Straits of Hormuz that we've been talking about for much of the last week.

And it's essentially where much of Iran's oil industry and their export industry begins.

What the President says he's done tonight is ordered this massive bombing raid that has destroyed the military targets on Kharg island, but

What's important then, in the second half of this post is the President says if the Strait of Hormuz is not opened, he might reevaluate that decision.

Essentially kind of putting a gun to the head of Iran's oil industry, saying, you know, we've taken out these military targets.

We could go back at any time and destroy the oil infrastructure that Iran would need to rebuild its economy if they don't open the straits, essentially leaving the ball in Iran's court to decide how they want to respond to that move by the US Military.

And I think we have Keir Simmons as well, who's live for us in Dubai tonight.

I want to bring you in on this conversation as well in this breaking news.

So, so how important is this, these, these strikes now on the island?

And the way the President is describing this attack.

Yeah, I mean, it's crucial, Tom, from the perspective, as you mentioned, for Iran's oil industry, but

it's also crucial strategically because remember that the Strait of Hormuz Cog island is, is right there on the Strait of Hormuz.

And the Strait of Hormuz is 20 nautical miles wide.

So this island plays a role if you want to dominate that strait, which is exactly what the Iranians have been doing, if you want to put it this way.

Effectively, the Iranians are able to say, from this island, we can target shipping.

They could stand in another part of that, that kind of strait, and they could also target shipping.

But I think another part of this is the message that President Trump is trying to send, and

effectively what he's trying to do is to assert escalation, dominance.

That means that he is trying to say that every time Iran, you ramp things up, we will ramp things up more.

We've now just hit that island, that crucial island, and

as you hear from his statement there, he says, we can do more, we'll hit you hard.

I mean, he's kept saying that over the past days and, and two weeks since this war began.

I think the crucial question here is how Iran will respond to it.

Because so far, Iran has itself tried to escalate back, if you like, has tried to try to assert its ability to control the narrative and the strategic challenge of this war.

And I suspect that you're going to find that Iran will try and do that again.

But whether Iran considers that the threat to attack its oil industry is enough of a threat that it will back down, I mean, that's the big question here.

And we did just this week, as you know, Tom, hear the new Supreme Leader of Iran, or at least hear his word, hear his message, saying, we are going to continue to control the Strait of Hormuz, we are going to continue to hit neighbors like uae, where I am now, until you back down America, until you back down Israel here.

I know you're not an oil analyst and, or an oil expert, but

the President is claiming that he did not strike the oil infrastructure.

They just took out the military targets to show them that they can basically get to Iran and to their economic stronghold.

That being said, if the President would have destroyed that oil infrastructure, this would have just shot up oil prices and gas prices even more.

Remember that the Iranian oil industry has enormous capability prospects, but it is a broken industry, honestly.

So whether that specifically will have an impact on oil prices, it's a great question, Tom.

Probably not directly, but what it does is, back to my point is it does escalate things effectively.

Unless we're going to see Iran capitulate, which is the way that Steve Witkoff described what President Trump is looking for Iran to do, unless that's going to happen, then I think the reason why it might have an impact on oil prices is because it may be viewed as a, as a further escalation, we need to see Iran's response.

But I think, I suspect Iran's response is going to be, we're just not going to, we're not going to raise the white flag because you have done this and just keep in mind, too.

President Trump, the Trump administration, the US Is another reason why it's not targeting and targeting Iran's oil industry is because should the regime fall, the hope would be that that oil industry would be used to help finance the rebuilding of.

And remember, stay updated on breaking news and top stories on the NBC News app or watch live on our YouTube chann.