Trump reportedly wants to seize Iran's Kharg Island. He floated the idea 40 years ago
US President Donald Trump mulled over taking over Iran’s oil-export hub Kharg Island as a way to assert US power in the Gulf and punish the Islamic Republic. The idea came to him nearly 40 years ago.
“I’d be harsh on Iran. They’ve been beating us psychologically, making us look [like] a bunch of fools,” Trump told the Guardian in 1988.
“One bullet shot at one of our men or ships, and I’d do a number on Kharg Island. I’d go in and take it,” he added.
The interview is notable now as several news sites have reported US and Israeli discussions about seizing the island, where Iran exports around 90 percent of its crude.
Axios reported that the US and Israel held discussions about seizing Kharg Island last week.
The 1988 Guardian interview demonstrates that this idea is not new. In the interview, he also said that "It’d be good for the world to take them (Iran) on".
Trump’s comments then came against the backdrop of the Iran-Iraq War, a brutal conflict against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and the Islamic Republic, which saw around 500,000 people killed.
In the late 1980s, the US Navy escorted vessels through the Strait of Hormuz and attacked Iranian oil installations and mines.
Trump’s hostility to Iran can be traced back to the Guardian interview.
“Iran can’t even beat Iraq, yet they push the United States around. It’d be good for the world to take them on,” he said.
A complex history
Like many Americans of his generation, Trump’s view on Iran was shaped by the 1979 overthrow of the US-backed shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The popular uprising led to the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran. In November 1979, 66 Americans were taken hostage from the US embassy in Tehran. Fourteen were released early, and the remaining 52 were held for over 400 days.
The US’s history with Iran, however, is much more complicated.
The US and Israel, in fact, sold Iran weapons during its war with Iraq, viewing Hussein’s secular Arab government as a bigger foe than the Islamic Republic.
Some sales were part of the Iran-Contra affair, where proceeds were illegally used to support anti-Marxist rebels in Nicaragua.
The Trump administration has long noted the US president’s statements from the 1980s, for example, in support of tariffs, as proof that he is deeply committed to his positions.
The US-Israel war on Iran has led to the worst energy crisis since the 1970s Arab oil embargo, which Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries said was done in response to US support for Israel during the 1973 Arab-Israeli War.
Roughly 20 percent of the world’s oil and natural gas supplies pass through the Strait of Hormuz, which is effectively closed to all but the most intrepid vessel owners.
Bloomberg reported that Iran was still loading oil at Kharg Island as late as Saturday, one week after the beginning of the US-Israeli attack, but that it was not clear if it was still operating.
This article was sourced from Middle East Eye.
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