US President Donald Trump threatened further strikes on Iran’s Kharg Island oil export hub and urged allies to send warships to secure the Strait of Hormuz, as Tehran vowed to step up its response against US and Israel and the war showed no sign on Sunday of coming to an end.
Trump said the US strikes had “totally demolished” most of Kharg Island and warned that more could follow, telling NBC News, “We may hit it a few more times just for fun.” While he said Tehran appeared ready to make a deal to end the conflict, he added that “the terms aren’t good enough yet.”
The comments marked an escalation in rhetoric from the president, who had previously said the US targeted only military sites on Kharg. They also undercut diplomatic efforts, with three sources familiar with the situation telling Reuters that Trump’s administration had already rebuffed efforts by Middle Eastern allies to start negotiations aimed at ending the war.
Tehran’s ability to stop shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a major channel for oil and gas, poses a difficult problem for the US and its allies. Energy prices are soaring as the war causes the biggest-ever disruption in oil supply.
“The Countries of the World that receive Oil through the Hormuz Strait must take care of that passage, and we will help — A LOT!” Trump wrote in a social media post on Saturday. “The US will also coordinate with those Countries so that everything goes quickly, smoothly, and well.”
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As the conflict stretched into its third week, both sides appeared to be digging in for an extended fight.
Still from US footage of strikes on Iran’s Kharg Island, March 13, 2026. (US Centcom)
Iran projected defiance, rejecting the possibility of any ceasefire until US and Israeli airstrikes end.
Iranian forces have kept up their strikes. A drone attack disrupted a major United Arab Emirates energy hub on Saturday and the US warned its citizens on Saturday to leave Iraq after a missile attack on the embassy in Baghdad overnight Friday.
Oil market disruptions looked unlikely to end soon. Some oil-loading operations were suspended in the UAE’s Fujairah emirate, a global ship-refueling hub, after a drone attack, industry and trade sources said on Saturday.
The emirate’s media office said a drone was intercepted, but civil defence forces as of late Saturday were still trying to put out a fire caused by falling debris.
Since Israel and the United States began air attacks on Iran on February 28, the war has killed more than 2,000 people, mostly in Iran, according to reports from governments and state media.
At least 15 were killed when an airstrike hit a refrigerator and heater factory in the central Iranian city of Isfahan, the semi-official Fars news agency said on Saturday.
The agency blamed the attack on the “American-Zionist [Israeli] enemy” and said it was caused by a missile.
The Israel Defense Forces did not immediately comment on the incident.
Abu Dhabi ‘prioritizing reason and logic’
Iran, in turn, called on civilians in the UAE to evacuate ports, docks, and “American hideouts,” saying US forces had targeted Iran from those areas.
Calling any facility associated with the United States a “legitimate target,” Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps urged all US industries to move out of the region.
The UAE, while denying that the strikes on Kharg Island came from its territory, said that it had “the right to defend itself against this imposed terrorist aggression.”
Nevertheless, the Gulf nation was “still prioritizing reason and logic, continuing to exercise restraint and seeking a way out for Iran and the region,” presidential adviser Anwar Gargash said late Saturday on X.
The UAE “made sincere efforts until the very last moment to mediate between Washington and Tehran to avoid this war”, he wrote.
A fire and plume of smoke rise after, according to authorities. debris from an intercepted Iranian drone struck an oil facility in Fujairah, United Arab Emirates, March 14, 2026.(AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
Oil market disruptions looked unlikely to end soon. Some oil-loading operations were suspended in the UAE’s Fujairah emirate, a global ship-refueling hub, after a drone attack, industry and trade sources said on Saturday.
Trump was spending the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, where he kept a relatively low public profile on Saturday, aside from his NBC interview and several posts on his Truth Social account.
In one post, the Republican president wrote that he hoped China, France, Japan, South Korea, Britain and others would send warships to the Strait of Hormuz. None of those countries gave any immediate indication they would do so.
‘No problem’ with Mojtaba Khamenei
Iran has insisted that the crucial shipping channel will remain closed, including in a statement purportedly issued by the country’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei on Thursday.
The statement, though attributed to him, was read out by a presenter on state TV.
Khamenei, who replaced his father Ali Khamenei after he was killed by Israel in the opening moves of its campaign against the Islamic Republic, has yet to appear in public since his appointment, and regime officials have indicated he was lightly injured during the ongoing war.
His absence has sparked suggestions, including from US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, that he was more severely injured than Iran was willing to let on.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi shot down the notion on Saturday, telling MS Now that “there is no problem with the new supreme leader. He sent his message yesterday, and he will perform his duties.”
Still, Trump questioned in his interview with NBC whether the new supreme leader was “even alive.”
Illustrative: An Iranian woman holds an image of the new Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei as she takes part in the Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day rally, an Iranian government show of support for the Palestinian people held on the last Friday of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, in Tehran, Iran on March 13, 2026. (AFP)
“So far, nobody’s been able to show him,” Trump said of Khamenei. “I’m hearing he’s not alive, and if he is, he should do something very smart for his country, and that’s surrender.
He acknowledged, though, that suggestions of his death were only “a rumor.”
Iran played down the extent of the damage on Kharg Island. The US said it had targeted military, not energy industry, targets on the island, which is about 15 miles (24 km) off Iran’s coastline in the Gulf.
US Central Command said it hit more than 90 sites on Kharg, including naval mine storage facilities, missile storage bunkers and other military targets.
Araghchi said Iran would respond to any attack on its energy facilities. Iran’s Ministry of Defense said on Saturday that nine ballistic missiles and 33 drones were launched from Iran towards the UAE.
Iran warned residents to leave areas near Jebel Ali port in Dubai, Khalifa port in Abu Dhabi and the UAE’s Fujairah port and said it was targeting branches of US banks in the Gulf.
Fujairah, outside the Strait of Hormuz, is the outlet for about 1 million barrels per day of the UAE’s Murban crude oil — a volume equal to about 1% of world demand.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.