Iran renews threat of retaliation after US attacks on island military infrastructure

Iran has warned that it will target oil and energy facilities in the Middle East linked to the United States if its own infrastructure is attacked, reiterating its threats after the United States bombed military targets at the key outpost on Khag Island. The semi-official Fars news agency quoted the central military command as saying that if Iran’s energy and economic assets were hit, “all oil, economic and energy facilities in the region belonging to oil companies partly owned by the United States or working with the United States will be immediately destroyed and reduced to ashes.” Following the attack on military assets, US President Donald Trump threatened further attacks on Iranian oil facilities on the island if Tehran continued to interfere with ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz. Khag Island is located off the coast of mainland Iran, deep in the Persian Gulf. The oil pipeline that terminates here is responsible for the vast majority of Iran’s energy exports, which are vital to the country’s economy. 15 explosions reported Fars separately reported that more than 15 explosions rocked the island, sending thick smoke into the sky. The agency said the attacks targeted the island’s air defense system, a naval base, an airport control tower and a helicopter hangar, but there were no immediate reports of any casualties or the extent of the damage. Ehsan Jahanyan, deputy governor of Iran’s southern Bushehr province, said “the daily lives and daily activities of residents have also been fully maintained” after the attack. He added that the attack did not cause any casualties among military personnel, company employees or residents of Kharg Island. The U.S. threat to strike one of the most critical pillars of the Islamic Republic’s economy marks yet another escalation in Tehran’s war with Israel and the United States. Trump said on Friday that the United States would continue to campaign for as long as necessary, while insisting that the campaign was “way ahead of schedule.” The president also said the U.S. Navy would begin escorting ships through the Strait of Hormuz “soon.” An unnamed U.S. official told The Associated Press that the U.S. military has sent 2,500 Marines to the Middle East with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit and the amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli. Marine Expeditionary Forces are capable of conducting amphibious landings, but they also specialize in strengthening embassy security, evacuating civilians and providing disaster relief. ‘Haq raids from UAE’ Iran on Saturday issued evacuation warnings for three major ports in the United Arab Emirates, including the Middle East’s busiest, its first public threat to its neighbor’s non-U.S. assets as its war with the United States and Israel enters its third week. Iran said the United States used “ports, terminals and hideouts” in the United Arab Emirates to launch attacks on Iran’s Khargah Island, but did not provide evidence. It urged people to evacuate areas where U.S. troops were said to be sheltering. Hours after the threat was issued, there was no sign of an attack on the Middle East’s busiest port of Jebel Ali in Dubai or Khalifa Port in Abu Dhabi. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told MS NOW that the United States struck low-range artillery on the islands of al-Kharg and Abu Musa from two locations in the UAE, Ras Al Khaimah and “very close to Dubai,” calling them dangerous and saying Iran “will try to be careful not to attack any populated areas there.”

Hager oil exports ‘normal’ Oil export operations were operating normally on the Gulf’s Khag Island on Saturday, a regional official said, after a U.S. attack on the crude export hub caused no casualties. Two oil tankers were anchored in Al-Kharg just hours after the U.S. attack, according to Tankertrackers.com, a company that specializes in satellite imagery to track ship movements. Both incidents took place on Saturday morning local time. Neither ship was there on Friday, its co-founder Samir Madani said. AP, Bloomberg, AFP