U.S. President Donald Trump openly mused about seizing Iran’s Kharg Island oil terminal in the Persian Gulf, despite signs of progress in nascent cease-fire talks.
"Maybe we take Kharg Island, maybe we don't,” he told the Financial Times in an interview published early Monday. "We have a lot of options.”
Trump also claimed that Iran had agreed to allow 20 oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz starting Monday as "a sign of respect."
The comments came as 2,500 U.S. Marines arrived in the region and a similar-sized contingent was on its way.
As a diplomatic effort being facilitated by Pakistan toward ending the war moved ahead, Trump also said that Iran had agreed to allow 20 oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz starting Monday as "a sign of respect."
Pakistan announced earlier Sunday that it would soon host talks between the U.S. and Iran, though there was no immediate word from Washington or Tehran, and it was unclear whether discussions on the monthlong war would be direct or indirect.
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said the talks would be held "in the coming days.”
Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One late Sunday that the U.S. was negotiating "directly and indirectly” with Iran. Tehran, however, has insisted that it has not been in any talks with Washington.
He insisted that the U.S. had already accomplished regime change in Tehran after strikes killed the country's supreme leader and other top officials and said twice that their replacements seemed "very reasonable."
"I think we'll make a deal with them, I'm pretty sure, but it's possible we won't," Trump said, adding: "We’re doing extremely well in that negotiation, but you never know with Iran because we negotiate with them and then we always have to blow them up."
Earlier, Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, dismissed the talks in Pakistan as a cover to get more U.S. troops into the area.
He said Iranian forces were "waiting for the arrival of American troops on the ground to set them on fire and punish their regional partners forever,” according to state media.
In the Financial Times interview, 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.
He suggested it could mean a longer-term commitment, saying: "it would mean we had to be there for a while."
"I don’t think they have any defense," he added. "We could take it very easily.”
The island handles 90% of Iran's oil exports and seizing it would give the United States the ability to severely disrupt Iran's energy trade, placing enormous pressure on Tehran's economy.
The U.S. already launched airstrikes once that targeted military positions on the island. Iran has threatened to launch its own ground invasion of Gulf Arab countries and mine the Persian Gulf if U.S. troops land on its territory.
To get an amphibious invasion force to Kharg would mean transiting the Strait of Hormuz and most of the Persian Gulf. Experts say that holding the island would also be a challenge, because in addition to its missiles and drones, it would be well within artillery range from the Iranian mainland.
The majority of Americans are opposed to the war and a military escalation, which would risk a protracted crisis, would likely weigh further on Trump's already low approval ratings ahead of the November midterm elections for Congress.
Thirteen U.S. service members have been killed in the war.
