President Donald Trump issued his starkest warning yet to Iran on Saturday, threatening to authorise the destruction of the country’s remaining oil infrastructure unless Tehran allowed free passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz. Trump had previously stated he was holding back from hitting oil facilities out of “decency,” but made clear that patience had limits. His warning came as US warplanes continued pounding Kharg Island, Iran’s primary crude export terminal, following a massive initial assault on Friday.
The Strait of Hormuz had been closed by Iran since the war erupted on February 28, cutting off a waterway that normally handles around 20 percent of global oil and gas shipments daily. The closure sent energy prices spiking sharply upward and rattled financial markets worldwide. Trump simultaneously appealed to allied nations on social media, naming China, France, Japan, South Korea, and the UK as countries he hoped would send warships to help force the passage open. The appeal was widely read as an acknowledgment that the US might not be able to reopen the strait without international help.
Iran retaliated on multiple fronts throughout Saturday. Ballistic missiles struck the UAE, hitting near Fujairah’s major oil facilities and forcing a suspension of loading operations at one of the world’s busiest ship-refuelling ports. Iran’s military warned civilians near UAE ports and US installations to evacuate. Iranian commanders threatened to hit any Gulf energy facility with American ownership or ties, while the foreign minister demanded that Arab nations remove US forces from the region entirely.
Israel remained a central actor in the conflict, launching dozens of airstrikes across Iran on Saturday. At least 15 people were killed when an Israeli strike destroyed a factory in Isfahan. The Israeli military said the raids were aimed at dismantling Iran’s missile launch capacity and weakening the security apparatus underpinning the regime. US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said Iran’s leaders were in hiding underground, and claimed newly installed Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei had been wounded and possibly disfigured. Iran acknowledged Khamenei’s injury but called it minor.
The war’s combined human and economic toll was becoming impossible to ignore. Between 1,400 and 1,800 Iranians had reportedly been killed. Thirteen Israelis and around 20 Gulf residents had also died. Six US service members perished in an aircraft crash in Iraq. The US embassy in Baghdad was hit overnight, and Americans in Iraq were ordered to evacuate immediately. Lebanon’s crisis deepened, with more than 800 dead and 850,000 displaced from Israeli strikes on Hezbollah. Oil prices were threatening to climb from $120 toward $150 per barrel, and analysts urged Trump to find an exit from the conflict before irreversible global economic damage set in.
Photo by Mohammad Bornu / Avash Media / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)
