U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz said Sunday that President Trump is keeping oil infrastructure strikes on the table against Iran, including facilities on Kharg Island that handle roughly 90 percent of the country’s crude oil exports.
Waltz made the statement on CNN’s “State of the Union,” responding to host Jake Tapper’s question about whether Trump was prepared to target oil production facilities if Iran refuses to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
“President Trump’s not going to take any options off the table,” Waltz said. “I would certainly think he would maintain that optionality if he wants to take down their energy infrastructure.”
Waltz, a Green Beret veteran and former national security advisor, said Iran had been using the military assets at Kharg to project fast boats, drones, and other attack platforms into the Persian Gulf. He argued that an Iran with nuclear capabilities would have posed a far greater threat to regional shipping lanes than the current standoff.
Iran has not moved to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The waterway is the world’s most critical oil transit chokepoint. Roughly 80 percent of the oil that passes through it is bound for Asian markets.
“Eight in ten barrels of oil moving through the strait go to Asia,” Waltz told Tapper. “Less than ten percent reach the Western Hemisphere, and that’s because of Trump’s push for American energy independence.”
Waltz drew a comparison to the Tanker War of the 1980s, when the United States, United Kingdom, France, and the Soviet Union conducted tanker escort operations through the same waterway during the Iran-Iraq War. Britain and South Korea are now reportedly considering sending warships to the strait to escort oil shipments.
Iran denied Sunday that it has ever sought negotiations or a ceasefire, directly contradicting Trump, who said Saturday that Tehran was desperate for a deal but hadn’t met his terms. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told CBS that Iran “never asked for a ceasefire” and is “ready to defend ourselves as long as it takes.”
