In recent weeks, Iran has been strengthening defensive measures at its oil export hub Khark Island, deploying additional military personnel and air defense units in anticipation of possible US military action to seize the island.
CNN reported on the 25th, citing multiple sources, that Iran has deployed more shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles on the island and has laid anti-personnel and anti-tank mines along the coastline and other locations to guard against a possible US amphibious landing operation.
Meanwhile, Iranian parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on social media on the 25th that some information indicates that Iran's enemies, with the support of "a certain regional country," are preparing to launch an operation to occupy Iranian islands.
He stated that all enemy movements are under Iranian surveillance.
He said: “If they dare to take any action, we will relentlessly launch fierce attacks against all vital infrastructure of that regional country.”
According to US media reports, the Trump administration is considering occupying or blockading Khark Island to pressure Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. On the night of the 13th, US forces carried out a large-scale strike on Iran’s Khark Island, claiming to have successfully targeted over 90 military objectives on the island, including destroying Iranian naval mine storage facilities and missile storage bunkers, but sparing oil infrastructure. On the 17th, US forces also struck Iranian missile positions along the Strait of Hormuz with several 5,000-pound bunker-buster bombs.
Currently, two US Marine Expeditionary Units and approximately 2,000 troops from the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division are heading to the Middle East to support military operations against Iran or to participate in the seizure of Khark Island.
Iranian military sources stated that if the US launches a military invasion of Khark Island, it will face an unprecedented response since previous US and Israeli attacks on Iran.
Khark Island is located in the northwest of the Persian Gulf, about 25 kilometers from the Iranian coast. It is approximately 6 kilometers long and 3 kilometers wide, and is Iran’s largest crude oil export base, with 90% of Iran’s crude oil exported from there.