TEHRAN: Iran’s oil minister landed on Kharg Island, home to the country’s main export terminal, and held talks with a naval commander on Sunday, the oil ministry’s news website Shana reported, amid concern Israel could attack energy facilities.
An Israeli military spokesman said on Saturday that Israel would retaliate in response to last week’s missile attack by Tehran “when the time is right.”
US news website Axios cited Israeli officials as saying Iran’s oil facilities could be hit, while US President Joe Biden said on Friday that he did not think Israel had yet concluded how to respond.
Iran is a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) with production of around 3.2 million barrels per day (bpd), or 3 percent of global output. Iranian oil exports have climbed this year to near multi-year highs of 1.7 million bpd despite US sanctions.
Most of its oil and gas wealth is located in the south of the country, where the Kharg Island terminal is situated and from which around 90 percent of Iranian oil exports are shipped.
Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad arrived on Sunday “to visit the oil facilities and meet operational staff located on Kharg Island,” Shana reported, adding that the oil terminal there has the capacity to store 23 million barrels of crude.
State media reported Paknejad met with Mohammad Hossein Bargahi, a Revolutionary Guards Navy commander, to check the security of Iran’s South Pars gas platforms and assess the effective actions of the Guards’ 4th Naval Region.
“The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy plays an important role in the security of oil and gas facilities,” Paknejad was quoted as saying.
China, which does not recognize US sanctions, is Tehran’s biggest oil customer and according to analysts imported 1.2 to 1.4 million barrels per day from Iran in the first half of 2024.
Iran’s oil minister visits key oil terminal amid Israel strike fears
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Iran’s oil minister visits key oil terminal amid Israel strike fears
Israel decided to kill Khamenei in November, defense minister says
- “The prime minister (Benjamin Netanyahu) set the goal of eliminating Khamenei,” Katz told Israel’s N12 TV news
- The timing was set for mid-2026
JERUSALEM: Israel took the decision to kill Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in November and was planning to carry out the operation around six months later, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Thursday.
Khamenei was killed in the first hours of the US-Israeli air campaign that began on Saturday in the first assassination of a country’s top ruler by an airstrike.
The joint air assault is nearing the end of its first week after opening salvos killed the country’s leaders and set off a regional war, with Iranian attacks in Israel, the Gulf and Iraq, and Israeli attacks against Iran’s ally Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“Already in November we were convened with the prime minister in a very tight forum and the prime minister (Benjamin Netanyahu) set the goal of eliminating Khamenei,” Katz told Israel’s N12 TV news. The timing was set for mid-2026, he said.
The plan was eventually shared with the Washington and brought forward around January after protests broke out Iran, when Israel was concerned its pressured clerical rulers might launch an attack against Israel and US assets in the Middle East, Katz said.
Israel has said its aim is to eliminate the existential threat it sees in Iran’s nuclear program and ballistic missile project, and to bring about regime change. Iran’s rulers have so far shown no sign of relinquishing power.
