The Main Misconceptions About Khark Island in Iran — Can the US Capture It in One Move?

Let's start with a simple analogy.

Imagine there is a large building materials supermarket in your city.

For example, you need to buy 10 pieces of 6-meter-long wooden boards, a bundle of rebar, and three windows for your villa. You check out at the supermarket and then go to the designated pickup area on the other side of the store to collect your goods.

This is done to avoid moving large items in the store and to facilitate quick delivery to customers.

The export of oil by many countries follows exactly the same model:

Oil from the entire country is first concentrated at one (or several) points, tankers come to load the oil, and then sail to the buyer's port.

Sometimes, this concentration point is not a traditional deep-water port (such as Novorossiysk, Hamburg, Rotterdam, Shanghai), but an island.

The reason is usually very simple: the surrounding waters of the island are deep enough for large ships to dock and load cargo.

Khark Island falls into this category.

A brief introduction to the island:

  • It belongs to Iran

  • Located in the Persian Gulf

  • Administratively belongs to Bushehr Province (остан = province / region)

You've probably heard of Iran's Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, which is located in Bushehr.

Incidentally, Iran's first nuclear power plant was initially built by Siemens of Germany. Later, Germany imposed various restrictions on Iran, and the project was frozen. Finally, Russia took over the construction and put it into operation 15 years ago. Now, the second unit is also under construction.

Back to Khark Island. The island is very small:

  • 57 kilometers away from the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant
  • 7 kilometers long
  • Only one city
  • Population of 8,000
  • Has an airport
  • Has dozens of piers

Historically, it was ruled by Arabs, the British, and the Portuguese, but has been Iranian territory for the past few centuries.

Many articles say:

Khark Island is almost the only export point for Iran's oil. If the US occupies it, Iran will lose its oil revenue and be forced to surrender.

But this is a misconception.

In fact, the US cannot do this without fully and unimpeded control of the Persian Gulf...

The real misconception lies in:

Iran does not export all of its oil through Khark Island.

During the late 20th century Iran-Iraq war, Khark Island suffered heavy damage.

At that time, Iran did indeed export nearly 90% of its oil through this island.

Since then, Iranians have learned their lesson and distributed the export pipelines to multiple ports, not putting all their eggs in one basket.

Below is a map of Iran's oil pipelines leading to various ports:

There are at least six oil and gas export points, and one pipeline indeed leads to Khark Island.

The other export points are distributed from north to south along the main ports of the Persian Gulf.

So to say: Khark Island is extremely important to Iran, but it is just part of the oil export infrastructure, not the only export route.

There is another interesting little-known fact about Khark Island:

Because of its high strategic value, the island is almost completely closed to the public, after all, it is an energy core facility.

But one country, at Iran's invitation, thoroughly studied every corner of the island.

Can you guess which country...?

It's Russia.

The reason is: when Iran ordered the second unit of the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant from Russia, Russian and Iranian experts encountered a complex problem:

The Bushehr Peninsula is located on an earthquake zone.

Additionally, ocean currents continuously bring silt, raising the land, and the coastline's topography has been constantly changing.

The nuclear power plant must be designed to be unaffected by changes in the coastline and capable of operating safely for a long time.

After long-term research, the Russian-Iranian research team concluded:

The location of the Bushehr 2 Nuclear Power Plant is geologically almost like the "past version" of Khark Island.

This place used to be an island, but became a peninsula due to changes in the coastline.

In other words, Khark Island and the site of the nuclear power plant being built for Iran by Russia are almost geological twins.

Therefore, for several years, Russian scientists have not only been allowed to visit the island, but have also, for the first time in history, comprehensively mapped the island from a geological perspective.

The research ship "Professor Stokman" worked continuously in the Persian Gulf for years, studying almost every inch of Khark Island.

Therefore, for Russia, Khark Island is a very familiar place.

These are some of the cold facts about this island.

Original article: toutiao.com/article/7616769602135818794/

Disclaimer: This article represents the views of the author.