TEHRAN — President Donald Trump has highlighted a U.S. strike on Iran’s Kharg Island, as Tehran warned that any attacks on its energy infrastructure would trigger harsher retaliatory measures against American-linked facilities across the region. 

The exchange comes amid rising tensions and surging global oil prices, which have climbed more than 40 percent since the joint U.S.–Israeli military campaign against Iran began on February 28.

Trump said U.S. forces bombed military installations on Kharg Island in the third week of the operation. He claimed that the island’s critical oil facilities could be targeted next if Iran continues to restrict shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway that Tehran has partially closed in response to the escalating conflict. According to the U.S. president, American forces “totally obliterated” all military targets on the island, calling the strike “one of the most powerful bombing raids in the history of the Middle East.” He offered no evidence to support the scale of destruction he described.

Trump added that he had chosen not to “wipe out” Kharg’s oil infrastructure but warned that he would “immediately reconsider this decision” if Iran or “anyone else” interfered with the free passage of ships through the strait. Critics in the region argue that Trump’s dramatic language appears aimed at distracting from what they describe as the broader failure of the U.S. military campaign, which has struggled to achieve its stated objectives since the outset of the conflict.

Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) issued a sharp response on Saturday. Lieutenant-Colonel Ebrahim Zolfaghari, a spokesman for a key IRGC command unit overseeing the war effort, warned that any attack on Iranian oil, economic, or energy infrastructure would be met with immediate retaliation. 

“In response to the statements of the aggressive and terrorist President of the United States, we declare that if the oil, economic, or energy infrastructure of the Islamic Republic of Iran is attacked, then—as we previously warned—all oil, economic, and energy infrastructure belonging to oil companies across the region that have American shareholders or cooperate with the United States will be immediately destroyed and reduced to a pile of ashes,” he said.

Iran’s foreign minister later on Saturday said Iran will attack the facilities of US companies in the Middle East if its energy infrastructure is targeted.

“If Iranian facilities are targeted our forces will target facilities of American companies in the region or companies in which the United States has shares,” Abbas Araghchi said. He said Iran was stil going to respond to the recent aggression against Kharg.

Amid the fallout of the U.S.-Israeli war, some oil loading operations were suspended at a port in the UAE after the interception of a drone caused a major fire. The fire at the port in Fujairah, a key oil storage and trading center, occurred after debris fell during the interception of a drone, according to local media.

Meanwhile, Iranian officials have said Trump is highly exaggerating the impact of the U.S. strike on Kharg Island. Ehsan Jahanian, political deputy to the governor of Bushehr province, told the Tasnim news agency that oil exports from the island were “fully under way” and that all oil facilities “remain intact.” He said companies operating on the island were continuing their activities without interruption. 

According to local authorities, parts of the island’s military facilities and Kharg Airport sustained damage, but there were no casualties among military personnel, oil workers, or residents.

Kharg Island is Iran’s primary oil export hub, handling more than 90 percent of the country’s crude shipments. The threat of further escalation—combined with Iran’s partial closure of the Strait of Hormuz—has intensified global market fears, pushing oil prices sharply higher. Regional analysts warn that any additional strikes on energy infrastructure, whether Iranian or U.S.-linked, could send prices soaring even further and risk a broader conflict across the Persian Gulf.