The Trump administration and Israeli officials are reportedly discussing a high-stakes shift in the conflict: the direct seizure of Kharg Island, Iran’s primary economic artery.
While special operations plans originally focused on securing Iran’s 450-kilogram stockpile of highly enriched uranium, the strategic conversation has expanded to physically capturing the terminal that handles roughly 90% of Iran’s crude oil exports, according to Axios.
The ultimate goal, according to former Lockheed marketing executive Jarrod Agen, now the director of the National Energy Dominance Council, is to take control of Iran’s oil. “Ultimately, we’re not going to have to worry about these issues in the Strait of Hormuz because we’re going to get all of the oil out of the hands of terrorists,” Agen said in an interview on Fox Business.
Kharg Island is the “jugular” of the Iranian regime. Located 20 nautical miles off the coast, this small island is the only facility in the country capable of loading the supertankers that supply Iran’s primary customers, including China. Because Iran’s entire pipeline infrastructure is engineered to feed into Kharg, the regime has no viable way to reroute these volumes to smaller terminals like Jask or Bandar Abbas.
Seizing the island would offer the U.S. what sanctions never could: direct, physical control over the regime’s revenue. By controlling the point where crude reaches the world market, the U.S. gains an “on/off switch” for the Iranian economy without needing a full-scale invasion of the mainland.
The primary target of such an operation could be the funding of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The IRGC is not merely a military wing; it is a conglomerate that depends on state oil revenue to:
- Pay salaries and benefits to maintain the loyalty of elite security forces.
- Fund foreign proxy groups like Hezbollah and militias in Iraq and Syria.
- Procure missiles, drones, and advanced weaponry.
If Kharg were seized, Iran stands to lose between $90 million and $130 million per day. A sudden collapse in hard-currency revenue would likely trigger hyperinflation and a domestic fiscal crisis. Under an authoritarian system, the inability to pay its praetorian guard is often the precursor to a coup or a total collapse of authority. By severing this financial lifeline, the U.S. aims to hollow out the IRGC’s power from the inside out.
The operation is viewed as a “limited” mission rather than a traditional “boots on the ground” occupation. With the U.S. already claiming to have sunk over 30 Iranian warships and established air superiority, Kharg’s isolation makes it a defensible prize.
Controlling the island would provide a strategic refueling point for other missions — such as the recovery of enriched uranium from the buried tunnels in Isfahan — and provide absolute leverage over whatever government eventually emerges in Tehran.
Ultimately, the strategy rests on a simple premise: you do not need to control the capital if you control the cash.
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