REPORT: US Could Deploy Marines To Take Iran’s ‘Crown Jewel’ And Re-Open Strait Of Hormuz

President Trump is pressing aides and allies to find a way to reopen the Strait of Hormuz as gas prices rise, and one option being discussed is a Marine Corps move aimed at Iran’s island positions.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the Pentagon has deployed the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, a rapid-response force of about 2,200 Marines, to the Middle East. Current and former U.S. officials told the paper the unit could be used to seize one or more islands off Iran’s southern coast — either as leverage to pressure Tehran or as a forward base to counter Iranian attacks on commercial shipping. The unit is embarked on the amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli and is expected to arrive from Japan in just over a week, the Journal said.

Iran has essentially closed the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow passage that carries about 20% of the world’s oil, by attacking commercial traffic. The disruption has jolted markets, driven fuel costs higher and created a major military and political problem for Trump.

U.S. forces have been trying to pry the strait open by targeting Tehran’s ability to threaten it. U.S. Central Command said Tuesday that U.S. forces used 5,000-pound deep-penetrator munitions against hardened Iranian missile sites along the coastline tied to anti-ship cruise missiles. But Iran has continued to strike at U.S. forces and regional allies even after weeks of U.S.-Israeli operations, raising questions about whether airstrikes alone can fully suppress the threat.

“The U.S. has flown thousands and thousands of sorties and yet we are not yet confident that all of these capabilities have been destroyed,” said Caitlin Talmadge, a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “That does raise questions about whether they will ever be destroyed.”

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The Marine option centers on Iran’s small islands, which can host missiles, conceal fast boats and support oil infrastructure. The most economically significant target is Kharg Island, which serves as Iran’s main oil export hub. Trump has publicly threatened to strike its oil pipelines, but the Journal report suggests some advisers and former officials see another path: seize an island as a bargaining chip instead of destroying energy infrastructure outright.

Retired Gen. Frank McKenzie, the former commander of U.S. Central Command, framed the choice bluntly.

“Kharg Island, 90% of their oil comes through there. So you’ve got really two choices,” McKenzie said. “You can destroy the oil infrastructure, which would give irrevocable damage to the Iranian economy and the global economy, or you could seize it to use as a bargaining chip, which doesn’t then permanently degrade the world economy.”

A raid could be conducted by sea, with ship-to-shore craft landing Marines and equipment directly on a coastline, or by air, using helicopters and aircraft that can operate without a runway. Other islands near the mouth of the strait, including Qeshm, Kish and Hormuz, have also been discussed by analysts as potential staging points because of their location and Iran’s military footprint there.

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Retired Vice Adm. John Miller, who formerly commanded U.S. Naval Forces Central, told the Journal he doubts the U.S. would put troops inside Iran itself, but said offshore positions could offer a temporary tactical edge.

“I don’t see them in Iran proper,” Miller said. “I think if you’re going to put them anywhere, the place where it would be on some of the islands that are around Iran, in the Gulf, that might give you some advantage from a tactical sense for a period of time.”

Backers of the concept argue it could increase pressure on Tehran and help restore shipping without a full-scale ground war, while letting Trump say he kept his promise not to deploy American boots “in Iran proper.”

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