In the high-stakes chess game playing out in the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s Kharg Island is emerging as a key piece.
The island has deep-water port facilities, ideal for supertankers. It sits just 16 miles off the main Iranian coast, offering a strategic staging post for incursions into proper Iran, and serves as the country’s primary oil export terminal, handling over 90% of its crude exports.
Controlling Kharg will not only allow the US to dominate the strategic waterway of the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of the global crude and natural gas is transported, but it will also deprive Tehran of its key oil revenue sources, and US President Donald Trump is obsessed with it.
In the last month, Trump has bombed the tiny island, roughly 20–22 km², once and mentioned it at least half a dozen times.
On March 13, Trump announced the bombing of Kharg Island on Truth Social.
“Moments ago, at my direction, the United States Central Command executed one of the most powerful bombing raids in the history of the Middle East, and totally obliterated every MILITARY target in Iran’s crown jewel, Kharg Island…
“For reasons of decency, I have chosen NOT to wipe out the Oil Infrastructure on the Island. However, should Iran, or anyone else, do anything to interfere with the Free and Safe Passage of Ships through the Strait of Hormuz, I will immediately reconsider this decision.”
In an interview a few days later, Trump warned he could hit Kharg Island “a few more times just for fun” and said the US had “totally demolished” much of it while sparing oil infrastructure.
On March 16, in an interview with PBS, Trump said, “I told them openly — I’ll knock the hell out of it (Kharg Island).”
Trump has also floated options like seizing the island: “Maybe we take Kharg Island, maybe we don’t. We have a lot of options… We could take it very easily.”
Then on March 30, Trump posted on Truth Social: “Great progress has been made but, if for any reason a deal is not shortly reached, which it probably will be, and if the Hormuz Strait is not immediately ‘Open for Business,’ we will conclude our lovely ‘stay’ in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!), which we have purposefully not yet ‘touched.'”
Trump has repeatedly threatened to “bomb,” “knock out,” and “seize” Kharg Island; however, defense experts caution that any US effort to seize the island by force could end in a military disaster.
Why is Kharg Island a Natural Fortress?
Firstly, its proximity to the Iranian coast (16 miles) means that any invading force would be in the direct firing line of Iranian rocket artillery, missiles, drones (including loitering munitions and FPV types), shoulder-fired MANPADS, and even some coastal guns or short-range systems.
Furthermore, the nearby coastline is mountainous in places, allowing low-altitude drone or missile approaches through passes that are hard for radar to detect reliably.
Forces on the mostly flat, low-elevation island would have almost no protection and limited maneuver space, making them highly vulnerable to observation and sustained fire from the mainland.
Secondly, for the US Marines, approaching the island itself would be extremely challenging, for the Island is situated fairly north in the Strait of Hormuz.
The invading marine force will have to navigate the Persian Gulf. This involves passing multiple choke-points littered with threats like naval mines, anti-ship missiles, drones, and small submarines.
Additionally, Iran has built formidable defenses on the island itself. Tehran could also adopt a scorched-earth policy by setting fire to the oil wells, creating toxic smoke and a hazardous atmosphere for the invading forces.
Writing in the Long War Journal, Ryan Brobst and Cameron McMillan from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, opined that “Seizing and occupying Kharg Island is more likely to expand and prolong the war than to deliver any sort of decisive victory… [It] would pose significant operational challenges and come at a high cost for little strategic return… [and] could lead to significant casualties.”
They warned that an attempt to seize the island could be “a trap of America’s own making.”
However, notwithstanding the operational challenges and the warning issued by defense experts, Kharg Island has been invaded, captured, and occupied not once but twice.
Incidentally, on both occasions, Iran was supported by Russia, and it was a Western power, Britain, that occupied the Kharg Island.
The British Occupation of Kharg Island
In 1838, during the First Herat War, and then in 1856, during the Anglo-Persian War, Great Britain invaded and occupied the strategic Kharg Island to exert military and diplomatic pressure on the Shah of Iran.
However, at that time, crude oil had not yet become the valuable commercial commodity it would become by the end of the 19th century, and for the Brits, the only value Kharg held was its geostrategic location near the Iranian coast.
In fact, on both occasions, Great Britain’s purpose to occupy Kharg was not the island itself, but to use it as a bargaining chip to dissuade the Shah of Iran from his designs to occupy Herat in southwestern Afghanistan.
Britain wanted to protect Afghanistan as a semi-independent kingdom so it could serve as a buffer state between the expanding Tsarist Russian Empire and the increasingly important British India colony, the jewel in the crown.
In fact, while much has been written about the Great Game between Britain and Russia in Central Asia, far less attention has been paid to the two wars Britain fought against Iran to maintain Afghanistan’s status as a buffer state, with the ultimate goal of protecting its Indian colony.
In the early 19th century, Persia lost two consecutive wars to Russia, the Russo-Persian War of 1804-1813 and the Russo-Persian War of 1826-1828, following which Tehran fell under heavy Russian influence.
In 1836, Persia was pressured by Russia to launch a military expedition against Herat, a semi-independent kingdom in Afghanistan. Persia had historical claims on Herat, which at various points in history was part of the Persian Empire.
Despite British representations, the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Shah Qajar, launched his military expedition to Herat in 1837.
Herat, historically, has also served as a gateway to India.
Britain believed that Herat’s defense was intrinsically linked to India’s security.
To put pressure on the Shah, Britain decided to invade Kharg Island and easily capture it because it was poorly defended. The British maintained control of the island till 1842.
Then again, during the Crimean War of 1854-1856, in which Britain, France, and the Ottomans fought Russia, Moscow asked the Shah to invade Herat to pressure Britain.
In response, Britain once again invaded and captured Kharg Island. Following the 1857 Treaty of Paris, Tehran relinquished its claims over Herat, and Britain once again withdrew from Kharg.
However, in the mid-19th century, Kharg had little economic value. Oil had not become a commercially traded commodity, Gulf countries were not rich, and the Strait of Hormuz was not the global energy lifeline that it is today.
Kharg Island was seen as nothing more than a tiny coral outcrop, and Persia had not invested in building defenses there.
Furthermore, long-range artillery, drones, or missiles had not yet been invented, and hence, Persia could have defended the island only by making a beach landing.
A much more difficult proposition than just laying sea mines in the narrow Persian Gulf or firing long-range artillery from the mainland mountains. Due to these factors, Britain captured the strategic island twice with a modest naval force.
- Sumit Ahlawat has over a decade of experience in news media. He has worked with Press Trust of India, Times Now, Zee News, Economic Times, and Microsoft News. He holds a Master’s Degree in International Media and Modern History from the University of Sheffield, UK.
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- He can be reached at ahlawat.sumit85 (at) gmail.com
