Retired U.S. general proposes seizing Iran's main oil-export island to pressure Tehran

Retired General Frank McKenzie said Sunday that the United States should consider seizing Iran's Kharg Island to gain leverage in future negotiations with Tehran. Newsweek reported that McKenzie, the former commander of U.S. Central Command, made the remarks during an appearance on CBS News' Face the Nation.

"That's something we should think about doing because possession of Iranian soil would be a significant factor in future negotiations with Iran," McKenzie said. He added that seizing the island would require sending warships into narrow waters but that the Navy could carry out the mission if ordered.

The comments came after the United States launched airstrikes against approximately 140 targets across Iran early Sunday.

CENTCOM said the strikes hit missile and drone launch sites, ammunition depots and other military infrastructure. Iran had attacked a Cyprus-flagged commercial vessel in the Strait of Hormuz, setting the ship ablaze and forcing its crew to abandon it, Newsweek reported.

" Iran-linked targets were also struck in Jordan, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman, and Gulf states reported activating air defense systems.

McKenzie said any pressure on Iran must target the regime's core interest in survival. "If you want to gain concessions from Iran, you have to directly pressure the regime, and you have to do so in a way that perhaps is existential to them," he said. Kharg Island lies off Iran's southern coast and serves as the country's main oil-export terminal.

Its deep-water facilities handle large tankers that cannot load at most other Iranian ports. Before the current conflict, roughly a fifth of global oil and natural gas trade passed through the Strait of Hormuz. " CENTCOM stated that the waterway remains an international route and that U.S.