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U.S. President Donald Trump urged countries to send warships to help protect the Strait of Hormuz, as Iran warned it would strike U.S.-linked oil and energy infrastructures in the Middle East if its own oil facilities are attacked.
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Tehran reiterated its threat of retaliation in response to the U.S. bombardment of military targets on Iran’s Kharg Island. The Iranian warnings specified American interests in the United Arab Emirates, which later suffered a drone strike.
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“In the event of an attack on the oil, economic and energy infrastructure of the Islamic Republic of Iran … all oil, economic and energy infrastructure belonging to oil companies throughout the region that own American stocks or cooperate with the United States will be immediately destroyed,” a spokesperson for Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters said, according to a report by Iran’s Fars news agency.
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“They will be destroyed and turned into a pile of ashes,” the spokesperson added.
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Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters warned that U.S. interests in the United Arab Emirates, including ports, docks and military locations, were legitimate targets, according to media reports. Hours later, a drone attack on Fujairah port, a major bunkering hub in the UAE and crude export terminal, forced the facility to suspend some oil-loading operations, Reuters reported.
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Trump late Friday said the U.S. had launched air strikes on Kharg Island, targeting only military assets in what he called one of the “most powerful bombing raids in the History of the Middle East.” The island, a 5-mile strip of land, is home to Iran’s most important oil facility, where roughly 90 percent of the country’s crude is processed.
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Trump said the U.S. attack spared vital oil infrastructure on the island.
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But “should Iran, or anyone else, do anything to interfere with the Free and Safe Passage of Ships through the Strait of Hormuz, I will immediately reconsider this decision,” he said on social media.
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On Saturday, Trump said “many countries … will be sending warships, in conjunction with the United States of America, to keep the Strait open and safe.”
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“Hopefully China, France, Japan, South Korea, the U.K., and others, that are affected by this artificial constraint, will send ships to the area so that the Hormuz Strait” can be protected, Trump said in a post on Truth Social. The appeal to Britain came less than a week after Trump told U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer that Washington didn’t need British aircraft carriers in its campaign against Iran.
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The Fars news agency reported at least 15 explosions on Kharg Island with thick smoke rising over the island following the U.S. attack. The agency said the strikes targeted an air defense facility, a naval base, the airport control tower, and an offshore oil company’s helicopter hangar. No oil infrastructure was damaged in the attack, it said.
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The U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said U.S. forces “executed a large-scale precision strike on Kharg Island,” in a post on X.
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“The strike destroyed naval mine storage facilities, missile storage bunkers, and multiple other military sites,” CENTCOM said. “U.S. forces successfully struck more than 90 Iranian military targets on Kharg Island, while preserving the oil infrastructure.”
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The oil processing facilities on Kharg Island are a key component of the Iranian economy. Some 90 percent of Iran’s crude oil is processed at Kharg Island, and any disruption to its processing infrastructure could cripple the county’s economy.
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The Pentagon is moving additional U.S. Marines and warships to the Middle East to help protect shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, the Wall Street Journal reported. The latest deployment involves an amphibious group and attached Marine expeditionary unit, according to the report.
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The deployment will add thousands of Marines, several warships and F-35 fighter jets to support those already in the region, Axios reported. A U.S. official told Axios that CENTCOM requested the new deployment in order to have more options for military operations against Iran. The U.S. is planning potential operations for taking out land-based anti-ship missiles that the Iranians have deployed in the Strait area, according to the report.
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Trump said later Saturday in a telephone interview with NBC News that he isn’t ready to make a deal to end the war with Iran despite Tehran’s willingness to do so “because the terms aren’t good enough yet,” but he declined to say what those terms would be. The president also questioned whether Iran’s new supreme leader is “even alive.”
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The WSJ also reported that five American Air Force refueling planes were damaged in an Iranian missile strike earlier this week at Prince Sultan air base in Saudi Arabia. The aircraft were not fully destroyed and are being repaired, the newspaper said.
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In a social media post on Saturday, Trump challenged that report, saying the “planes were not ‘struck’ “ and that four of the five aircraft “are already back in service.”
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