DUBAI/JERUSALEM, March 15 — Unites States (US) President Donald Trump has threatened further strikes on Iran's Kharg Island oil export hub and urged allies to send warships to secure the Strait of Hormuz, as Tehran vowed to step up its response and the war showed no sign on Sunday of coming to an end.
He said the US strikes had "totally demolished" most of Kharg Island and warned that more could follow, telling NBC News, "We may hit it a few more times just for fun."
While Trump said Tehran appeared ready to make a deal to end the conflict, he added that "the terms are not good enough yet."
The comments marked an escalation in rhetoric from the president, who had previously said the US targeted only military sites on Kharg. They also undercut diplomatic efforts, with three sources familiar with the situation telling Reuters that Trump's administration had already rebuffed efforts by Middle Eastern allies to start negotiations aimed at ending the war.
Tehran's ability to stop shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a major channel for oil and gas, poses a difficult problem for the US and its allies. Energy prices are soaring as the war causes the biggest-ever disruption in oil supply.
"The Countries of the World that receive Oil through the Hormuz Strait must take care of that passage, and we will help — A LOT! The US will also coordinate with those Countries so that everything goes quickly, smoothly, and well," Trump wrote in a social media post on Saturday.
As the conflict stretched into its third week, both sides appeared to be digging in for an extended fight.
Iran projected defiance, rejecting the possibility of any ceasefire until US and Israeli airstrikes end.
Iranian forces have kept up their strikes. A drone attack disrupted a major United Arab Emirates (UAE) energy hub on Saturday, and the US warned its citizens on Saturday to leave Iraq after a missile attack on the embassy in Baghdad overnight Friday.
Since Israel and the US began air attacks on Iran on February 28, the war has killed more than 2,000 people, mostly in Iran, according to reports from governments and state media. On Saturday, the semi-official Fars news agency reported at least 15 deaths when an airstrike hit a refrigerator and heater factory in the central Iranian city of Isfahan.
Iran called on civilians in the UAE to evacuate ports, docks and "American hideouts," saying US forces had targeted Iran from those areas. The UAE denied that strikes on Iran's Kharg Island overnight Friday had come from its territory.
Calling any facility associated with America a "legitimate target," Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps urged all US industries to move out of the region.
Oil market disruptions looked unlikely to end soon. Some oil-loading operations were suspended in the UAE's Fujairah emirate, a global ship-refuelling hub, after a drone attack, industry and trade sources said on Saturday.
The emirate's media office said a drone was intercepted, but civil defence forces as of late Saturday were still trying to put out a fire caused by falling debris.
'Bombing the hell out of the shoreline'
Trump was spending the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, where he kept a relatively low public profile on Saturday, aside from his NBC interview and several posts on his Truth Social account.
In one post, the Republican president wrote that he hoped China, France, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom (UK), and others would send warships to the Strait of Hormuz. None of those countries gave any immediate indication they would do so.
French officials said on Friday their government was pushing on with efforts to assemble a coalition to secure the Strait of Hormuz once the security situation stabilises.
A UK Defence Ministry spokesman said on Saturday: "As we have said previously, we are currently discussing with our allies and partners a range of options to ensure the security of shipping in the region."
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who replaced his slain father, has said the Strait of Hormuz should remain closed.
Separately, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi dismissed speculation from US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth that Khamenei was wounded and likely disfigured.
"There is no problem with the new supreme leader. He sent his message yesterday, and he will perform his duties," he told MS Now.
Khamenei has not appeared in public, instead issuing a statement on Thursday read by a television presenter.
Kharg Island damage
Iran played down the extent of the damage on Kharg Island. The US said it had targeted military, not energy industry, targets on the island, which is about 24 km off Iran's coastline in the Gulf.
US Central Command said it hit more than 90 sites on Kharg, including naval mine storage facilities, missile storage bunkers and other military targets.
Araqchi said Iran would respond to any attack on its energy facilities. Iran's Defence Ministry said on Saturday that nine ballistic missiles and 33 drones were launched from Iran towards the UAE.
Iran warned residents to leave areas near Jebel Ali port in Dubai, Khalifa port in Abu Dhabi and the UAE's Fujairah port and said it was targeting branches of US banks in the Gulf.
Fujairah, outside the Strait of Hormuz, is the outlet for about one million barrels per day of the UAE's Murban crude oil — a volume equal to about one per cent of world demand.
