Iran's energy hub of Kharg Island is being blown to smithereens, US President Donald Trump said on Sunday in a one-line social media post accompanied by an AI-generated video clip. There was no other evidence that the Iranian energy hub was under attack. The White House and the US Defense Department did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment outside regular business hours. There was no immediate response to Trump's post on Iranian media. "Kharg Island being blown to smithereens!!! President DJT," Trump said on social media, but gave no further details. Reuters confirmed that an accompanying video clip showing dramatic explosions was most likely synthetically-generated, using software that detects AI-manipulated imagery. Attacking Kharg, which handled 90% of Iran's oil exports before the war launched by US and Israeli attacks on February 28, would severely disrupt its energy trade and put huge pressure on its economy. Iran responded to an earlier US attack on rocket launchers on its island of Larak, about 660 km (410 miles) east of Kharg, with an assault on two US bases in Jordan, Iranian media said. The return to hostilities followed weeks in which the Trump administration has stepped up efforts to punish Tehran and its business partners with costly economic sanctions, shifting away from military options. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Reuters on Sunday new secondary sanctions were likely to be unveiled weekly in the effort to pressure Iran, with an initial focus on banks. "We're starting with the banks, and we're telling the banks it's not okay to have Iranian money and to aid the regime," Bessent said in an interview. After imposing penalties on the United Arab Emirates branches of Egypt's Banque Misr on Friday over alleged financial links to Iran, Bessent said the next step may be cutting off an institution entirely from the dollar-based financial system. "You're going to see a lot more of these every week," Bessent told Reuters, ahead of a meeting of Group of 20 finance leaders.
