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Kharg Island: The Landing Plan, the Forces, and the Trap

Kharg Island is a small, inhabited island in the Persian Gulf, about five miles long, about 15 to 21 miles off Iran's coast. Its oil terminal loads roughly 90 percent of Iran's crude exports, because most of Iran's coast is too shallow for tankers. In March 2026 it became the most-discussed place in the world for American ground troops. This page explains why, what forces were readied, and what the analysts who studied it say would happen to the Americans sent there.

Why Kharg​

The US struck military targets on the island on 13–14 March 2026, CENTCOM confirming strikes on "over 90 Iranian targets," while sparing the oil equipment. The idea was leverage: take the island, hold Iran's oil income hostage, and force Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Military experts, Reuters reported via Haaretz, thought controlling the island "would likely be seen as better than destroying it" (Haaretz, 19 March 2026). American Enterprise Institute scholar Michael Rubin called taking it a "no-brainer" and pitched it to White House officials, according to Harrison Mann in Responsible Statecraft.

Senator Lindsey Graham, 19 March, on X, as quoted: "He who controls Kharg Island, controls the destiny of this war. Semper Fi" (post quoting Graham). And, as Mann reported: "Mr. President: Take Kharg Island [and] this war is over!"

Who reported the plan, and when​

  • Israel Hayom, 19 March: "Officials are also considering sending troops to Kharg Island," with US officials acknowledging "serious risks" from Iranian missiles and drones (Israel Hayom).
  • Mako, 19 March (Hebrew): Trump "is considering a scenario of stationing ground forces near Iran's coasts, and even an operation on Kharg Island" (Mako).
  • Jerusalem Post, 22 March: senior US officials told counterparts in Israel "there might be no alternative" to a US ground operation to seize the island (Jerusalem Post).
  • Channel 13, 22 March (Hebrew): American planners judged it "a relatively easy mission" because every military target on the island had been bombed (Channel 13).
  • Ynetnews, 24 March, citing the New York Times: the 82nd Airborne's Immediate Response Force, "a roughly 3,000-soldier brigade capable of deploying within 18 hours," or about 2,500 Marines of the 31st MEU; Marine engineers could repair the bombed runway so C-130 cargo planes could fly in more troops (Ynetnews).
  • Axios, 26 March: "invade or blockade Kharg Island," the first of four "final blow" options (see Axios).
  • Globes, 29 March (Hebrew), summarizing CNN: "The assessment is growing that US President Donald Trump will send thousands of American soldiers to take over Iran's oil island" (Globes).
  • The Atlantic, 1–2 April, via Israel National News and Israel Hayom: a Kharg seizure was one of two ground operations "awaiting a green light" (Israel National News).

The president's words​

  • To the Financial Times, late March: "Maybe we take Kharg Island, maybe we don't. We have a lot of options." Holding it "would also mean we had to be there (on Kharg Island) for a while." "I don't think they have any defense. We could take it very easily" (AP, 31 March 2026).
  • On 11 June, posting that the US would "take Kharg Island and other oil sites" in "the not too distant future." The White House told Military Times that options included "scenarios involving a significant number of ground forces occupying Kharg Island." On Fox & Friends the same day: "I don't want to have boots on the ground. But if I wanted to, we could put a small group of soldiers and take over the whole place" (Military Times, 11 June 2026).
  • On Fox in mid-July: "If we wear them down hard enough and deep enough, I'll do it" (Ynetnews, 15 July 2026).

The forces sent within range​

The Wall Street Journal reported in late March that incoming forces would "most likely be positioned within operational range of Iran and Kharg Island" (Israel Hayom, 28 March 2026). LBC reported that if 5,000 more troops went, they would likely go "to a US military base within striking distance of Iran's Kharg island." Those forces are described on The Buildup. In June, a leaked Army order reported by Ken Klippenstein sent a company of the 82nd Airborne to Israel, tied, per an X summary, to "joint contingency planning" "for seizing Iranian-controlled Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf and carving out coastal territory inside Iran" (X news summary, 8 June 2026).

How a landing would go​

Retired Vice Adm. Robert Harward, a former deputy CENTCOM commander and a member of JINSA's Iran Policy Project, walked Fox News through it in July: a Marine Expeditionary Unit making an amphibious assault while naval and air forces control the fight, Iranian defenders given a chance to surrender. Then: "The concern is whether they launch missiles and drones at the island with U.S. forces on the ground. That's the biggest risk" (JINSA, 15 July 2026). Retired Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie, another former CENTCOM commander, said on CBS, as the World Socialist Web Site rendered it: "possession of Iranian soil would be a significant factor in future negotiations with Iran." Former CENTCOM commander Joseph Votel estimated "800 to 1,000 troops would be needed to hold Kharg Island," plus heavy support (Reuters, via the Times of Israel, 11 June 2026).

The trap​

The people who studied the landing describe what comes after it.

  • Harrison Mann, retired Army major, Responsible Statecraft: "For the troops unlucky enough to receive orders to take Kharg, the operation would land somewhere between a suicide mission and a self-imposed hostage crisis." About 20,000 people live on the island. Troops stuck there could become "a reason to send still more Americans onto the Iranian mainland" (Responsible Statecraft).
  • Bilal Saab, former Pentagon official, War on the Rocks: one strike that kills many Americans would leave the president a choice between sending more troops and pulling out; sending the Marines "is as reckless as it is counterproductive" (War on the Rocks).
  • Danny Citrinowicz, Israel's Institute for National Security Studies, to the AP: control of the island is "in no way a decisive blow."
  • Joe Kent, Trump's former counterterrorism director, as quoted in a Reddit comment: "It would essentially be giving Iran a bunch of hostages on an island that they could barrage with drones and missiles."
  • Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), on CNN, per LBC: "Seven thousand Marines died on the black sands of Iwo Jima." And: "I don't think Lindsey Graham, for all of that hubris, has thought through or wargamed the consequences of us taking Kharg Island."
  • Iran: former foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki said, as rendered by the World Socialist Web Site, that if US forces seize Iranian territory, Iran should storm a US base and take American soldiers hostage.

An island seizure is a ground war with a single exit. When the exit is under fire, the next order is a larger force. That is the path from "a small group of soldiers" to the numbers on Troop Math.

Status: Donald Trump is alive. Robert Harward is alive. Frank McKenzie is alive. Joseph Votel is alive. Harrison Mann is alive. Bilal Saab is alive. Danny Citrinowicz is alive. Joe Kent is alive. Nancy Mace is alive. Michael Rubin is alive. Manouchehr Mottaki is alive. Lindsey Graham: Unknown (several July 2026 posts and one Tablet Magazine column report his death; not confirmed by a primary source in this record).

Sources​

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

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