As Diplomacy Appears To Have Reached a Dead End, America Strikes at Iran’s Oil Exporting Hub

As President Trump threatens to annihilate the Persian civilization, a bombing of Kharg Island could usher a takeover of the lion’s share of the Islamic Republic’s source of income, along with its ability to wage war.With a deadline of 8 pm fast approaching for diplomats to reach a deal that would open the Strait of Hormuz, reports are growing that indirect talks broke down between American and Iranian diplomats. In Iran, meanwhile, major targets are being struck by American and Israeli air forces. Kharg Island is a weigh station for Iran’s oil industry, responsible for 90 percent of the country’s oil exports. American planes and drones struck targets there on Tuesday, ahead of Mr. Trump’s deadline for talks to conclude. Some 50 sorties are reported, targeting military defenses and tunnels there, as well as Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps posts and ground-to-ship missiles and launchers.Israel, meanwhile, struck a number of bridges and railroads in Iran on Tuesday. Those targets “are used by the IRGC to transfer arms and the activists that are attacking us, the Americans, the countries of the region, and the Iranian people,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a recorded message. Oil installations were deliberately spared in the attack on Kharg. Regardless, global oil rates jumped, adding 3 percent to the price of an oil barrel. As of this writing crude oil sells for $115 a barrel. Stock exchange indexes also indicated selloffs. “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” Mr. Trump wrote earlier on Truth Social. “I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.” Yet he added, “now that we have complete and total regime change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, who knows?”Mr. Netanyahu, on the other hand, insisted that striking the bridges and rails was not designed to hurt the people of Iran. “It’s the opposite,” he said. “They are meant to weaken and crush the terror regime that has been crushing them for 47 years.” Iranian officials called on national television for the people, including young children, to crowd bridges and power plants and defend them with their bodies. It was unclear how many people actually did so.

As Diplomacy Appears To Have Reached a Dead End, America Strikes at Iran’s Oil Exporting Hub

More from the New York Sun

Bannon’s High Court Win, After Merrick Garland Sent Him to Prison, Is Milestone in Trump’s Push To Reverse January 6 Convictions

Iran-Backed Iraqi Militia Reportedly Says It Will Free Abducted American Journalist Shelly Kittleson — With a Condition

Federal Appeals Court Allows Iowa To Enforce a Law Banning ‘Sexual Materials’ From School Libraries

More from the New York Sun

Bannon’s High Court Win, After Merrick Garland Sent Him to Prison, Is Milestone in Trump’s Push To Reverse January 6 Convictions

Iran-Backed Iraqi Militia Reportedly Says It Will Free Abducted American Journalist Shelly Kittleson — With a Condition

Federal Appeals Court Allows Iowa To Enforce a Law Banning ‘Sexual Materials’ From School Libraries

Russia and China Veto a Proposed UN Resolution on Freedom of Navigation at the Hormuz Strait

Kanye West’s Comeback Suffers a Blow as Britain Bars Him From Headlining London Festival

Vance Headlines Budapest Campaign Rally For Prime Minister Orban

‘Unacceptable’ Penn Station Closure for World Cup Draws Immediate Backlash

An Ernst Lubitsch Film Season? ‘Not To Be’ Missed