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Trump Won't Rule Out Kharg Island Takeover: What a U.S. Assault Could Look Like
The Jewish Institute for National Security of America, a Washington think tank that argues for close U.S. military ties with Israel, posted Trump Won't Rule Out Kharg Island Takeover: What a U.S. Assault Could Look Like on 15 July 2026. The byline on that page is Fox News, and the writer is Efrat Lachter. The page is an excerpt. It says to read the full article on Fox News, and it marks gaps with ellipses. An American family should care because a retired U.S. admiral walks through how Marines might seize Iran's Kharg Island, and what could happen to those troops after they landed.
Evidence rating: MODERATE. The claim is a described option, told to Fox News by a named officer: retired Vice Adm. Robert Harward, a former deputy commander of US Central Command and, the page says, a member of JINSA's Iran Policy Project.
What the article says
The excerpt opens with a picture of hundreds of U.S. Marines coming ashore while ships and jets hold the air and sea, and commanders warn Iranian forces to surrender or be overrun. It says that is how military experts envision the opening hours of a possible U.S. operation to seize Kharg Island. It says the island handles roughly 90 percent of Iran's crude oil exports.
Harward says there are many ways to do it. The article says he explained that a Marine Expeditionary Unit, a ship-borne Marine force built to land on a coast, could make an amphibious assault while naval and air forces control the fight, and that Iranian defenders could be given a chance to surrender first. It says his goal would be to capture the island and still preserve the oil equipment for a later Iranian government.
The article says Trump's remarks matched that aim of sparing the oil facilities. It says Trump said he had instructed U.S. forces during previous strikes to "hit everything, but the oil," because damage to the export terminal could hit the global economy.
Harward says that once Americans were on Kharg, the main danger would shift to missiles and drones from the mainland.
The concern is whether they launch missiles and drones at the island with U.S. forces on the ground. That's the biggest risk.
Retired Vice Adm. Robert Harward, quoted by Efrat Lachter, Fox News, as carried on the JINSA page, 15 July 2026.
He says the plan would depend on intelligence about Iranian forces, booby traps, and how Tehran would answer once troops were ashore. He says that if Iran struck Kharg itself, Iran would be damaging its own economic lifeline. The article says seizing an eight-square-mile island is a different problem from holding it close to the Iranian coast.
He also says Washington still has options short of an amphibious assault. The article says that, with a U.S.-led blockade already limiting oil exports, more economic pressure on roads, border crossings, and air traffic could be used instead of committing ground troops. Harward says a lot could still be done to raise the economic pressure, and that the strategy is to line up military, economic, and political pressure together.
The excerpt also quotes retired Vice Adm. Mark Fox, a former commander of the 5th Fleet. Fox, the article says, has called Kharg an oil terminal rather than a fortress, and has argued that smaller disputed islands near the Strait of Hormuz, Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb, and Abu Musa, could be easier military targets. Harward's own end state, as he states it, is an Iranian government that drops the Islamic Revolution and focuses on its people, ends a nuclear drive, stops support for proxy groups, keeps the Strait of Hormuz open, and ends domestic repression.
What other reporting and posts add
The White House was discussing it the same week. The World Socialist Web Site, summarizing the Wall Street Journal, said Trump convened a Situation Room meeting "to discuss the potential seizure of Kharg Island and other territory along the Strait of Hormuz using U.S. troops." It quoted Trump on Fox about seizing Kharg: "If we degrade them far enough and deep enough back, I would do that." It also quoted retired Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie, a former CENTCOM commander, on CBS, saying of a Kharg invasion: "That's something we should think about doing because possession of Iranian soil would be a significant factor in future negotiations with Iran." These are WSWS's renderings of other outlets. WSWS, 16 July 2026. (capture: twitter/t56__v668.md)
Earlier planning and warnings. Axios reported in March that one Pentagon option was to "invade or blockade Kharg Island." The Independent, 26 March 2026. (capture: twitter/t56__v668.md) In June, Ken Klippenstein reported a leaked order sending a company of the 82nd Airborne to Israel tied, per an X summary, to planning "for seizing Iranian-controlled Kharg Island." X news summary, 8 June 2026. (capture: twitter/t07__v083.md) In March, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) warned on CNN, as LBC reported: "Seven thousand Marines died on the black sands of Iwo Jima." LBC, 27 March 2026. (capture: twitter/t56__v668.md)
Iran's threat if Americans land. WSWS also quoted former Iranian foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki saying that if US forces seize Iranian territory, Iran should storm a US base "through a combined helicopter-borne and ground assault" and take American soldiers hostage. (capture: twitter/t56__v668.md)
What it shows
A Washington think tank that argues for close US military ties with Israel reposted a step-by-step picture of American Marines storming an Iranian island, and named the cost itself: "The concern is whether they launch missiles and drones at the island with U.S. forces on the ground. That's the biggest risk."
The same week, as WSWS summarized the Journal, Trump convened a Situation Room meeting "to discuss the potential seizure of Kharg Island and other territory along the Strait of Hormuz using U.S. troops," and a former CENTCOM commander said "possession of Iranian soil would be a significant factor in future negotiations with Iran." The advocates are pro-Israel; the troops in the scenario are American. See Kharg Island and the Uranium Raid and A Long Pattern.
Check it yourself
Status: Donald Trump is alive.
Why this matters to a newcomer: by July 2026, a spring ceasefire in the US-Israeli war on Iran (begun 28 February) had collapsed, and Trump was again talking about Kharg Island, the small island where most of Iran's oil is loaded onto tankers. The Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA), which reposted this Fox News story, is a Washington think tank that argues for close US-Israeli military ties and a hard line on Iran; the retired admiral quoted is part of its Iran policy project. A Marine Expeditionary Unit is a force of about 2,200 Marines that sails on Navy ships and can land on a coast.
Research captures: twitter/t56__v668.md, twitter/t07__v083.md
Last Updated: 2026-09-26