Trump mulling invasion of Iranian islands – report

President Trump brief on options for expanding Iran conflict, including the use of ground troops to seize strategically important islands and strikes on the suspected nuclear facility at Pickaxe Mountain.

By World Israel News Staff

President Donald Trump is considering deploying American ground forces to capture a number of strategically important Iranian islands, including the country’s principal oil-export hub, as his administration weighs a major expansion of the nearly five-month war.

Trump reviewed plans for a possible assault on Kharg Island and operations against Iranian-controlled territory near the Strait of Hormuz during a Situation Room meeting Tuesday, according to US officials cited by The Wall Street Journal.

No final decision has been made, and Trump continues to say he would prefer a diplomatic agreement. But Iran’s refusal to surrender its enriched uranium stockpile or end attacks on commercial shipping has led the president to request options designed to place substantially greater pressure on Tehran.

The alternatives under consideration include seizing Kharg Island with US troops, occupying smaller islands near the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz and expanding airstrikes against Iranian energy and military facilities. Trump is also weighing an attack on Pickaxe Mountain, a deeply buried complex suspected of being connected to Iran’s nuclear program.

An island operation would represent a sharp change in the character of the war.

US forces have repeatedly bombed Iranian territory and are enforcing a blockade of the country’s ports, but capturing and holding Iranian land would place American troops within range of missiles, drones and artillery based on the mainland.

Kharg Island would be the most economically significant target. Located about 16 miles off Iran’s coast and roughly 300 miles northwest of the Strait of Hormuz, the island handled approximately 90% of Iranian oil exports before the war began.

US aircraft previously struck missile bunkers, mine-storage facilities and other military targets on Kharg while deliberately avoiding its oil terminals, pipelines and storage tanks.

Capturing the island could allow Washington to control much of Iran’s remaining oil-export infrastructure and use the territory as leverage in negotiations.

Trump has publicly discussed that possibility for months.

Asked Tuesday whether he might approve a Kharg operation, he told Fox News: “If we degrade them far enough and deep enough back, I would do that.”

Retired Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie, a former commander of US Central Command, has argued that an occupation should remain under consideration because “possession of Iranian soil would be a significant factor in future negotiations with Iran.”

The Pentagon has also examined possible operations involving Abu Musa, Greater Tunb and Lesser Tunb, three strategically located islands near the eastern entrance to the Strait of Hormuz. Iran controls the islands, while the United Arab Emirates maintains sovereignty claims over them.

Greater Tunb has already become a focus of the renewed US air campaign. Central Command said American forces struck coastal-defense systems and cruise-missile facilities on the island Wednesday during a 90-minute operation.

Military planners could view the destruction of missile launchers, radar stations and air defenses on the islands as preparation for a possible landing. US officials described the latest attacks as “shaping operations” intended to weaken forces that could threaten more complex American missions.

“This is helping set the stage, if needed,” one US official told Reuters.

Capturing islands near Hormuz could give the United States positions from which to monitor shipping, destroy Iranian surveillance equipment and restrict the Revolutionary Guard’s ability to launch attacks from territory overlooking the waterway. Abu Musa and the Tunbs lie close to major commercial shipping routes through the narrow strait.

However, occupying the islands would not eliminate Iran’s ability to threaten shipping. Tehran could continue firing missiles and drones from the mainland, forcing the US military to defend isolated garrisons and the ships and aircraft needed to supply them.

Former CENTCOM commander Gen. Joseph Votel has estimated that 800 to 1,000 troops might be needed to hold Kharg itself. A much larger supporting force would be required to protect supply lines, provide air and missile defenses and evacuate casualties.

The latest deliberations follow the collapse of an interim agreement that had temporarily halted US attacks and eased restrictions on Iranian oil sales. Trump reinstated the blockade after Iran renewed attacks on vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.

Central Command said Wednesday that US forces redirected two ships attempting to reach Iranian ports and disabled another vessel heading toward Kharg Island after it ignored repeated warnings. The military said Hellfire missiles were fired into the empty tanker’s smokestack to stop it without sinking it.

American aircraft also conducted two waves of strikes Wednesday against Iranian command centers, air-defense positions, missile and drone sites, coastal surveillance systems and military facilities around Bandar Abbas.

Trump said the offensive was intended to force Tehran to choose between an agreement and further destruction.

“We’ll find out whether or not we settle with them, or we just finish it off,” he said.

Vice President JD Vance has portrayed the attacks as part of a broader pressure campaign rather than an open-ended bombing strategy.

“We’re not just going to bomb and bomb and bomb,” Vance said in an interview with Joe Rogan. “We’re going to try to use our military force as one of the many tools that we have to solve the problem.”

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