The Independent67%
Iran-US war latest: Trump threatens to ‘end our lovely stay in Iran’ by obliterating Kharg Island if deal not reached 0%
By Tara Cobham0% Alisha Rahaman Sarkar0% James C. Reynolds78%
3/30/2026, 1:00:36 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 25 faulty reasoning types, including Unattributed Quote, Framing Effect, and Post Hoc (False Cause), with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 16% saturation with 272 hits. Analysis detected 1,934 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,705 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 0% and a BS Rank of 0% (0 of 16,813 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 100.00% of the article peer group.
Donald Trump has threatened to “end our lovely stay in Iran” by “obliterating” Kharg Island and other energy facilities if a deal to end the war is not reached.
In a post on Truth Social, the US president claimed that Washington was holding “serious discussions” with Tehran on how to bring the conflict to a resolution after making “great progress” in talks.
“If the Hormuz Strait is not immediately ‘Open for Business,’ we will conclude our lovely ‘stay’ in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!), which we have purposefully not yet ‘touched’,” he wrote.
Tehran continues to deny that any direct talks are taking place and earlier branded US proposals to end the war “unrealistic, illogical and excessive”.
Thousands of US troops have arrived in the region after Trump threatened an invasion of the strategic Kharg island in the Persian Gulf, which holds 90 per cent of Iran’s oil exports.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said Tehran had received messages from intermediaries expressing Washington’s willingness to negotiate, but said the proposals were asking too much.
President claims ‘serious discussions’ ongoing with Tehran to end the war
Which key Iranian figures have been killed?
Strikes on Iran have killed several senior political and military figures, hitting the Islamic Republic's core leadership.
Among them are:
- Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, supreme leader of Iran, killed in an airstrike on his compound on 28 February.
- Ali Larijani, secretary of the supreme national security council, killed in an air strike in the Paris area on 17 March.
- Mohammad Pakpour, commander-in-chief of the IRGC, killed in Tehran on 28 February.
- Aziz Nasirzadeh, Iran’s defence minister, killed in Tehran on 28 February.
- Abdolrahim Mousavi, chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, killed in Tehran on 28 February.
- Esmail Khatib, Iran’s intelligence minister, killed in a strike on 18 March.
- Gholamreza Soleimani, commander of Iran’s Basij paramilitary force, leading the force central to internal security, killed in strikes on 17 March.
US expects to achieve objectives 'within weeks'
Secretary of state Marco Rubio said on Monday that the US would achieve its objectives “in a matter of weeks, not months”.
He described Iran’s missile stockpiles and ability to make more as “an unacceptable risk” that president Donald Trump is now “addressing”.
In comments to GMA, Rubio said, “there is a way forward here to achieve our objectives” and “we are going to achieve our objectives in a matter of weeks, not months”.
Impact of war on Europe could be as bad as Covid, says Germany's Merz
German chancellor Friedrich Merz during a press conference in Berlin that the impact of the war on Europe and Germany could be as bad as Covid if it expands.
Merz spoke at the Chancellery during a visit from Syrian president Ahmed al-Sharaa.
Meanwhile, Germany’s economy minister says that signs of a significant slowdown are already visible in Germany’s economy.
Katherina Reiche says that the government will decide after the Easter Holiday what measures to take for energy relief.
Will Trump invade Kharg Island?
Trump told the Financial Times in an interview published on Sunday that he wanted to "take the oil in Iran" and could seize the export hub of Kharg Island.
Taking control of Kharg would require ground troops, which the US has rushed to the region in recent days.
But most Americans are still opposed to the war and a new escalation, which would likely weigh on Trump’s already low approval ratings ahead of November midterm elections for Congress.
Officials have told Reuters the administration is weighing whether to send ground forces to the island.
Why launch a ground invasion?
The island handles 90% of Iran's oil exports, and seizing it would give the United States the ability to disrupt Iran's energy trade, placing enormous pressure on Tehran's economy.
Trump would also hope that taking Kharg Island would force Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and provide him with potential leverage in future negotiations, analysts say.
How could the US go in?
Two contingents of Marines could arrive in the region around the end of the month, and sources say the Pentagon is planning to send thousands of airborne troops as well to give Trump more options if he were to order a ground assault.
A former commander of the U.S.
Central Command, Joseph Votel, told TWZ.com last week that while only 800 to 1,000 troops would be needed on Kharg Island, they would require logistical backup that would need protection as well.
How would Iran respond?
Tehran has already sent extra surface to air missiles to the island and has laid traps including anti-personnel and anti-armour mines in the waters surrounding it, CNN reported, citing people familiar with US intelligence.
US troops landing on the island would also be exposed to missile and drone attacks.
Tehran could opt to lay more mines to target shipping, including floating mines deployed from the coast, which would make the region even more hazardous for shipping, which has already been significantly disrupted by the conflict.
What has Spain said about the Middle East crisis?
Spain has faced recurrent criticism from Donald Trump since his return to office last January over its low military spending relative to other Nato members.
Trump threatened to impose a full trade embargo on Spain on 3 March over its refusal to allow the US to use the jointly run bases at Morón and Rotafor to strike Iran.
Pedro Sánchez, the prime minister, stood his ground, restating in a 10-minute speech his opposition to war and what he called the “breakdown of international law”.
He said: “The question is not if we are on the side of the ayatollahs - nobody is.
The question is whether we are in favour of peace and international legality.”
Sánchez also warned that Iran could follow the path of the war in Iraq, which he said had failed to achieve its goals and made life worse for ordinary people.
France’s Emmanuel Macron and the EU’s António Costa expressed their solidarity with Spain’s decision.
On 30 March, Spain extended its airbase ban by closing its airspace to US planes involved in attacks on Iran.
Defence minister Margarita Robles said: “We don’t authorise either the use of military bases or the use of airspace for actions related to the war in Iran.”
The closure will force military planes to go around Spain en route to their targets.
It does not include emergency situations, reported Spanish outlet El País.
British troops will not join any ground invasion of Iran, Starmer says
Sir Keir Starmer has ruled out putting British troops on the ground in Iran, as he insisted the UK will not be “dragged in” to Donald Trump’s escalating war in the region.
The US sparked fears over the weekend that it is preparing launch ground operations in Iran, as fighting between Tehran and Washington continues into its second month.
The prime minister has faced criticism from both allies and enemies over his approach to the conflict, but doubled down on his position on Monday when asked if British troops could be sent to the Middle East.
“This is not our war and we’re not going to get drawn into it,” he said, adding the UK will continue to take defensive action and work to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
The Independent’s political reporter Athena Stavrou reports:
Recap: Trump says talks progressing as Israel widens invasion of Lebanon
Good afternoon,
Over the weekend, Donald Trump said that the US and Iran have been meeting directly and indirectly, appraising the new leaders of the country as being “very reasonable”.
With Iran’s top leadership decimated in four weeks of war, Trump said on Sunday he thought the US had already accomplished regime change in the country.
Pakistan, acting as an intermediary between the US and Iran, said it was preparing to host “meaningful talks” in the coming days aimed at ending the war.
US eyes possible Kharg invasion
Trump’s comments came even as more US troops arrived in the region, giving Trump the option of launching a ground offensive.
In an interview with Financial Times published on Sunday, Trump said he wanted to "take the oil in Iran" and could seize the export hub of Kharg Island.
Taking control of Kharg would require ground troops.
Iran’s parliament speaker accused the US of trying to negotiate while also planning an invasion, and said Iran was ready to respond if needed.
Netanyahu greenlights wider invasion in Lebanon
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said meanwhile on Sunday that he had ordered the military to expand its operations in southern Lebanon, blaming Hezbollah rocket fire.
Israel said last week it was enlarging a ‘buffer zone’ up to the Litani River.
Houthis enter the fray
Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis joined the conflict on Saturday, launching their first attacks on Israel and raising the prospect they could target and thus block a second key shipping route, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
Israeli authorities said on Sunday that they had intercepted two drones launched from Yemen.
Supreme leader still out of frame
Iran’s new supreme leader thanked the Iraqi people and religious leadership for their support of Iran, according to Iran’s state media.
But it was unclear how the message was conveyed.
Mojtaba Khamenei still has not been seen since his appointment as the third supreme leader of Iran in early March.
Madrid has closed its airspace to US planes involved in attacks on Iran, a step beyond its previous denial of use of jointly-operated military bases, Spain’s defence minister said on Monday.
"We don't authorize either the use of military bases or the use of airspace for actions related to the war in Iran," Margarita Robles told reporters in Madrid.
Spanish newspaper El Pais had first reported the news on Monday, citing military sources.
The closure of the airspace forces military planes to bypass NATO member Spain en route to their targets in the Middle East, but it does not include emergency situations, El Pais added.
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