The US and Israel have bombed fuel depots, nuclear sites, and military infrastructure across Iran. But one tiny island in the Persian Gulf, the one that actually keeps Iran's economy alive, has not been touched. That is not an oversight.
What Is Kharg Island
Kharg Island sits about 25 kilometres off Iran's southern coast in the Persian Gulf. It is roughly six kilometres long. The population is around 20,000, almost all of whom work in the oil industry.
That is the geography. Here is the economics: nearly 90% of all Iranian crude oil exports leave from Kharg. Not from the mainland. Not from multiple ports spread across the country. From this one island.
The reason is geography too. The shallow waters along much of Iran's coastline cannot accommodate supertankers. Kharg has deep-water jetties that can. Decades of infrastructure, pipelines, storage tanks, loading terminals built directly for this purpose. Iran loaded over 3 million barrels per day from Kharg between February 15 and 20, a record pace, just before the war started. Former US deputy special envoy for Iran Richard Nephew said it plainly: without Kharg, the Iranian economy bottoms out.
Oil tankers were still loading at the island as recently as March 2, two days after strikes began. Satellite imagery confirmed it. As of March 11, the island appears operational.
Why Has Nobody Struck It
The US and Israel have the capability. That is not in question. Chatham House Gulf specialist Neil Quilliam said directly: if they wanted to strike Kharg, they could. So the question is why they have not.
Three reasons are on the table.
First, escalation. If Kharg goes up, Iran has stated clearly it will target energy infrastructure across the Gulf. Saudi oil facilities. UAE terminals. Qatar's LNG plants. The IRGC put out a statement: if the US and Israel attack Iranian infrastructure, they will respond immediately by targeting their adversaries' energy facilities. That is not a bluff. That is a warning with teeth, and everyone in Washington knows it.
Second, oil prices. Brent crude hit $103 on March 9 after fresh strikes on Iranian fuel depots. That was without Kharg being touched. CSIS estimated that an attack on the island alone could push prices up by another $10 per barrel. At $100-plus oil, the US economy is already feeling the pain. Pump prices are above $4 in multiple American cities. Striking Kharg would compound that significantly.
Third, and this one matters: destroying Kharg does not just hurt the current Iranian regime. It hurts whatever comes after. Former US official Michael Doran noted the island has long been treated as a red line in US policy precisely because whoever governs Iran next will also need it to function. Burning down the infrastructure makes any post-war recovery nearly impossible.
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid has publicly called for Kharg to be destroyed, writing that it would collapse Iran's economy and bring down the regime. The Israeli Air Force did strike fuel storage depots in Tehran and Alborz for the first time during this conflict. That is a step toward energy infrastructure targeting. But Kharg itself remains a different calculation entirely.
The Seizure Option on the Table
Axios reported over the weekend that discussions are underway within the Trump administration about seizing Kharg Island rather than bombing it. That is a meaningfully different option.
Marc Gustafson, former head of the White House Situation Room, laid out the appeal: Trump gets a major PR win, US forces get a natural barrier from the Iranian mainland, and Washington gets maximum leverage over Tehran. It fits the pattern. The US effectively took control of Venezuela's oil sector at the start of 2026. Kharg would be a far more dramatic version of the same play.
But seizing an island 25 kilometres off a hostile coastline is not like signing a deal in Caracas. It requires ground forces. It requires holding the position under potential counterattack. It puts American troops on Iranian-claimed territory. The risk profile is completely different from an airstrike, and analysts across the board have flagged it as extremely high-stakes.
What Happens If It Gets Hit
Iran's economy collapses in the short term. That part is straightforward.
The rest is not. Iran immediately retaliates against Gulf energy infrastructure. The Strait of Hormuz, already effectively closed, gets further militarised. Oil prices spike hard above $100 and stay there. Every import-dependent country in Asia, from India to Bangladesh to South Korea, takes another body blow. Europe tips into recession. The Fed loses whatever room it had left to manoeuvre.
There is also a longer-term problem. JP Morgan noted in a research note that disabling Kharg permanently would require sustained, large-scale attacks. During the Iran-Iraq war, Iraqi forces struck Kharg and tankers repeatedly across eight years. The Iranians kept repairing it and kept exporting. Kharg is not fragile. Taking it out of the picture for good is a far harder military task than it looks on a map.
Editorial View · Santhosh Vishwamitra
Kharg Is Not a Target. It Is a Hostage.
Washington is deliberately keeping Kharg intact. Not out of restraint or mercy toward Iran. Because as long as it stands, it is leverage. Destroy it and the leverage disappears. Seize it and you have a trophy that costs American lives to hold indefinitely. The current strategy, keep bombing everything around Kharg while leaving the island itself functional, is not an accident. It is a pressure mechanism. It tells Tehran: we can turn your economy off completely at a time of our choosing. That threat is worth more than the act itself.
The problem is that this calculation depends on the war staying controlled. If it does not, if Iran pushes back hard enough or the domestic pressure on Trump grows, the temptation to finally hit Kharg will increase. And once that decision is made, the second and third-order consequences will land on every oil-importing country in the world, regardless of what they think about this war. India included.
Verdict
Kharg Island is six kilometres of coral and pipeline that holds 90% of Iran's economic oxygen. The US and Israel know exactly where it is. They have the weapons to destroy it in hours. They have not, because right now not striking it gives them more power than striking it would.
That calculation can change. The war is twelve days old. The escalation pattern has moved steadily in one direction. Watch Kharg. If it gets hit, the oil shock the world is already absorbing will look modest by comparison.
About the Author
Santhosh Vishwamitra is a writer and blogger covering geopolitics, global affairs, and technology. He is the founder of SVM Labs and the voice behind Inside Stories -- Where Global Politics Meets Perspective. For web development and writing, visit santhoshvishwamitrablog.wordpress.com.
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