Iranian state broadcaster IRIB says an Iranian tanker was struck by four American missiles in Kharg Island's anchorage area at 8am local time on Saturday, with no casualties initially reported and the crew safely evacuated [1]. This is a second Iranian state-media account of the strike, after Tasnim's version relayed by Xinhua, but it is not independent corroboration: both trace back to Tehran. The US "did not immediately confirm launching the attack," and the semi-official Fars agency reported only that several explosions were heard in the area of Kharg Island, adding that no official or accurate information about their cause and origin had yet been released [1].

What is new is the escalation around it. President Trump said the US could strike Iran's Pickaxe Mountain "very soon," without giving a clear reason [1]. Known in Farsi as Kuh-e Kolang, it is an underground complex near the Natanz enrichment plant, reportedly buried up to 600 metres beneath granite, which Iran says will house a centrifuge assembly plant and to which UN inspectors have not been granted full access; some weapons experts question whether even the largest US bunker-busters could destroy it [1]. Trump had also released an AI-generated video depicting an attack on Kharg Island, prompting fears that Iran's oil infrastructure could become a target [1].

The stakes at Kharg are concrete. The island handles about 90 per cent of Iran's crude exports, with loading capacity of seven million barrels per day and 30 million barrels of storage, and before the war roughly 80 per cent of its shipments went to China. Noureldeen Al Hammoury of Equiti Group told The National that any sustained damage to Kharg would effectively halt Iranian crude exports, currently estimated at roughly 1.5 million to 1.8 million bpd [1].

Separately, Vice President JD Vance said on Thursday that "everything that could happen is on the table" — economic, military, diplomatic and covert pressure — to stop Iran firing on commercial shipping, while declining to describe the situation as a war and saying "there is no active shooting" [2]. Iran's Tasnim, quoting Iran's military, said Tehran fired missiles and drones at Kuwait and the UAE on Thursday, and at the UAE and Bahrain a day earlier, in retaliation for US strikes [2]. Those are Iranian statements carried by state media; no confirmation appears in either report.

Brent crude fell more than 1 per cent to $93 a barrel on Friday and WTI to $89, while US diesel reached $5.85 a gallon, the highest in AAA's records [2].

The tests are unchanged: a CENTCOM statement naming this tanker, and any UKMTO or JMIC advisory change.