Deputy minister says Kharg oil operations intact after Trump AI video
Deputy Oil Minister Hamid Bovard on Monday mocked a video shared by US President Donald Trump purporting to show Kharg Island under attack, calling it “laughable” and saying oil operations on the key Persian Gulf export hub had not stopped.
“Conditions in Kharg are calm and appropriate and oil activities on the island have not stopped even for a moment,” Bovard, who also serves as chief of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), told Fars News Agency.
Trump posted an AI-generated clip on his social media platform early in the day showing the island’s oil installations on fire.
“Kharg Island being blown to smithereens,” he wrote on Truth Social.
Bovard said Kharg, from which about 90% of Iran’s oil exports are shipped, had been bombed “on different occasions by the American-Zionist enemy”, but oil industry workers and operational teams had kept activities running.
“Several contractors are now carrying out repairs and modernization of storage tanks, while work on jetties, tanks and previously planned projects is continuing without interruption,” he said.
Kharg has come under attack during the war waged by the United States and Israel against Iran in late February.
The US battered the island twice, in mid-March and early April, hitting military sites including naval mine depots, shelters and missile storage facilities.
Washington said oil facilities and export infrastructure were not targeted.
On June 16, Negahdar Hosseinpour, Kharg’s special district governor, said 548 missiles had struck the island during the attacks, including 50 in one of the heaviest raids in mid-March.
He said oil production, storage and exports continued without disruption.
Hosseinpour also said six ferryboats were targeted in attempts to cut Kharg’s links with the mainland, but fishing and civilian vessels kept residents and oil workers moving, leaving the island connected to the mainland.