ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf on Thursday warned that “wrong strategies” could trigger severe disruptions in energy infrastructure and markets. The remarks came shortly after US President Donald Trump warned of further strikes on Iran in the coming hours and raised the possibility of capturing the country’s key oil hub, Kharg Island.
“Wrong strategies and impulsive decisions will reset the entire board for the worse, explode energy infrastructure and markets and create an endless quagmire that you will be stuck in for years,” Ghalibaf said, adding, “You will see a different Iran.”
The remarks followed Trump’s statement that “the United States will be hitting Iran… VERY HARD TONIGHT.”
In a post on his Truth Social platform, the US president further stated that “at some point in the not-too-distant future, we will be taking Kharg Island and other [Iranian] oil infrastructure sites, and assume total control of their oil and gas markets.”
Kharg lies off Iran’s southern Bushehr province in the northwestern Persian Gulf. The island is a strategic energy hub where Iranian oil, transported via pipelines from across the country, is loaded onto outbound tankers.
During the six-week war, which began in late February with a large-scale aerial campaign that saw the US and Israel strike thousands of targets across Iran, military sites on Kharg Island were hit. However, direct strikes on the island’s vital energy infrastructure were avoided.
The escalation in rhetoric also coincides with an ongoing military confrontation that entered its third day on Thursday.
Earlier in the day, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) reported that its forces had "completed additional self-defense strikes against multiple targets in Iran” on Trump’s orders, adding that the operation targeted "Iranian military surveillance capabilities, communication systems, and air defense sites across Iran."
Meanwhile, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said that “twelve ballistic missiles were launched this morning targeting the deployment sites” of American fighter jets, as well as “vital facilities” of the US army located at the al-Azraq Air Base and Control Center in Jordan, “destroying those facilities and a large number of fighter jets.”
The military exchange followed two days of escalating tensions that began on Tuesday and were seemingly triggered by what the US said was Iran’s downing of an American Apache helicopter over the Strait of Hormuz.
The escalation also comes as Washington and Tehran have yet to reach a comprehensive resolution to the conflict, despite both sides agreeing to a Pakistan-mediated ceasefire on April 8 that temporarily halted fighting to allow space for talks.
While the first round of negotiations ended without a final agreement on April 11, a second round has yet to take place.
Amid the stalemate, the US President on Wednesday accused Iran of dragging its feet, saying, “We’re really close to the deal, but they keep tapping us along.”
