President Donald Trump told the Financial Times on Sunday that his “preference would be to take the oil” in Iran and that he is weighing a seizure of Kharg Island, the main export hub responsible for more than 90% of Iran’s oil shipments. In the interview he added, “To be honest with you, my favorite thing is to take the oil in Iran but some stupid people back in the U.S. say: ‘Why are you doing that?’ But they’re stupid people.”
The remarks are among the most direct Trump has made about intentions toward Iranian oil. In a separate interview this month with NBC News he avoided confirming any plan to seize Iran’s resources, saying instead that people have considered options similar to moves on Venezuela: “You look at Venezuela. People have thought about it, but it’s too soon to talk about that.” The article also notes that, in January, the U.S. captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and subsequently increased control over that country’s oil industry.
The White House had not immediately responded to requests for comment Sunday night.
Kharg Island, a rare hard-coral island off Iran’s coast and the country’s principal oil export terminal, was singled out by Trump as a possible target. “Maybe we take Kharg Island, maybe we don’t. We have a lot of options. It would also mean we had to be there [in Kharg Island] for a while,” he said.
Global oil prices have risen since the war began, with U.S. crude trading above $100 a barrel Sunday. The U.S. is moving additional forces to the Middle East, including the USS Tripoli as part of a 3,500-troop deployment. At the same time, Trump and his team say they are working on a 15-point proposal intended to end the conflict.
When asked whether a ceasefire could be reached soon to reopen the Strait of Hormuz — a strategic chokepoint handling roughly 20% of the world’s oil exports — Trump declined to predict timing. He also told the Financial Times, “We’ve got about 3,000 targets left — we’ve bombed 13,000 targets — and another couple of thousand targets to go. A deal could be made fairly quickly.”