McKenzie says U.S. could seize Strait of Hormuz or Kharg Island

Retired Gen. Frank McKenzie said the United States has the capability to control the Strait of Hormuz or seize Kharg Island if Donald Trump chooses that path, describing it as a way to put “extreme pressure” on Iran’s hardline rulers. In a CBS News interview on July 12, 2026, McKenzie also said holding Iranian soil could matter in future negotiations, a remark that followed Sen. Lindsey Graham’s suggestion three weeks earlier that Trump could take the strait “by force.”

The stakes are not theoretical. The U.S. Energy Information Administration says about 20 million barrels of oil a day flowed through the Strait of Hormuz in 2024, equal to roughly 20% of global petroleum liquids consumption. The International Energy Agency puts the figure at about 20 million barrels a day as well, or around 25% of world seaborne oil trade, with most of that crude headed to Asian buyers, especially China, India and Japan. Any attempt to dominate the waterway would immediately threaten tanker traffic, insurance costs and global fuel markets.

Kharg Island carries its own weight in the confrontation. Recent reporting says the island handles roughly 90% of Iran’s crude exports, making it one of Tehran’s most exposed energy assets. Taking it would not be a symbolic move. It would amount to a direct strike on the infrastructure that funds Iran’s oil revenue, and it would almost certainly deepen the military and political fight over who can police the Gulf’s most important shipping lane.

The comments landed amid a sharp July escalation. U.S. Central Command struck Iranian targets after attacks on three commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards then claimed retaliatory strikes on 85 U.S. military facilities in Bahrain and Kuwait, while Iranian media reported explosions on Kharg Island, Qeshm Island, Sirik and Bandar Abbas. The U.S. Treasury Department also canceled a license that had allowed Iran to sell oil through August 21, adding economic pressure to the military exchange.

Al Jazeera said the latest fighting is tied to a disputed memorandum of understanding over how the Strait of Hormuz should be administered and secured, with clashing views over whether shipping must be coordinated with Iran or kept open as an international waterway. With the strait at the center of both trade and coercion, any U.S. move to “control” it would risk short-term leverage against Iran at the cost of a wider regional war.