US President Donald Trump said on Thursday (local time) that a possible operation to seize Iran’s key Kharg Island would be “off the table” if both sides sign an agreement to end the war, which he said could be reached “as early as this weekend.”Also Read | Invade baby, invade: Trump eyes Kharg Island, Iran’s energy spigotThe Republican leader’s statement came days after he declared in a social media post that “at some point in the not so distant future,” the US would take Kharg, which processes 90% of the Islamic Republic’s total oil exports.“Now it would be (off the table) if we signed this agreement, it would be. They weren’t so thrilled when they heard that that’s what I was put in. I just don’t think I like it,” he told reporters at the Oval Office on being asked whether the Kharg Island operation was off the table.Trump also referred to oil-rich Venezuela, where a US military intervention in January led to the removal of its President, Nicolás Maduro. He claimed that “millions of barrels” of oil were being sent from the South American country to the United States.“Look at Venezuela, how well that’s worked out. We paid for that war many times… millions of barrels of oil from Venezuela going to Houston, and we’re working great with the Venezuelan government. Couldn’t be better. It’s real good relationship… Venezuela has been amazing. This is a larger situation… We go to wars, we end up with just blasting a lot of people and we come home. Nothing happens,” he added.Also Read | ‘Great settlement soon in Europe’: Trump sees imminent Iran deal, Tehran yet to nodThe United States has struck Kharg Island twice during the current conflict.Meanwhile, Trump further noted that US forces have already moved ships and transported millions of barrels of oil through the Strait of Hormuz in recent months. He added that the waterway would open “immediately,” possibly by Saturday or Monday, while avoiding calling it a “deadline.”“The Strait is going to open immediately. This signing maybe it’ll happen on Saturday or Monday. We think it’s going to go pretty quickly. I don’t want to say a deadline, because if I say a deadline, you’ll say, Oh, he didn’t meet the deadline. It’s going to get signed. And the strait is open. But the strait has been open for a number of months already, and you just didn’t know about it. I just announced yesterday that we bought a lot of ships across and millions, hundreds of millions of barrels of oil were brought across,” Trump remarked.The Strait of Hormuz has been under a virtual Iranian blockade since early March in response to the February 28 US-Israeli strikes that triggered the Middle East conflict. Around 20% of the world’s crude oil passes through this key shipping route.
