'It may not stay that way': Trump warns US could bomb oil pipelines on Iran's Kharg Island

US President Donald Trump warned on Monday that American forces could strike the oil pipelines on Iran's Kharg Island, even though the United States deliberately avoided targeting the energy infrastructure during the last attacks.

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"We attacked Kharg Island and knocked it. We destroyed everything on the island except for the area where the oil is. We left the pipes. We didn't want to do that, but we will do that. We can do that on 5 minutes' notice," Trump said while speaking about the US operation in Iran.

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Trump said the restraint was partly intended to avoid damaging infrastructure that could be used if Iran were rebuilt in the future. "But for purposes of someday rebuilding that country, I guess we did the right thing. But it may not stay that way. It's one simple word, and the pipes will be gone too, but it will take a long time to rebuild that."

Kharg Island serves as Iran's main oil export terminal, handling roughly 90% of the country's crude oil shipments to global markets. Located about 25 km off Iran's southern coast in the Persian Gulf, the island connects major onshore and offshore oil fields to international buyers through pipelines, storage facilities and deep-water loading jetties capable of accommodating large supertankers.

Oil shipments from the Kharg Island are a major source of revenue for Iran's government. Iran earned $53 billion in net oil export revenues in 2025, roughly 11 per cent of its annual GDP, according to an analyst cited by NBC.

The US President said the American military was aggressively dismantling Iran's defence industrial base, and its ability to rebuild its missiles and drone capability is getting close to zero. He also said US forces had targeted Iranian naval assets involved in threatening shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

"We're hammering their capacity to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz with more than 30 mine-laying ships destroyed. We've hit all 30 of their ships and destroyed them. They're all at the bottom of the sea," he said.

Trump again urged other countries to help protect commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway that carries a large share of global oil exports. "We strongly encourage other nations whose economy depends on the strait far more than ours. We get less than 1 per cent of our oil from the strait," he said, adding that some countries get much more oil through Hormuz. "Japan gets 95%, China gets 90%, and many European countries get quite a bit. South Korea get 35 per cent. So, we want them to help us with the Strait."

He said the US had already stabilised the situation in the area but warned that the narrow geography of the waterway still makes it vulnerable. "We have it (Hormuz) in very good shape. We've already taken care of Iran, but now, because literally a single terrorist can shoot a missile, and it's fairly close range, because it is a tight area, which is one of the reasons they've always used that as a weapon," he said.