With thousands of US ground troops reportedly on the way to the Middle East, speculation is mounting that they may be assigned to take Iran’s Kharg Island, a key fuel hub in the northern Persian Gulf which handles 90% of Tehran’s oil exports.
But Kharg is just one of dozens of Iranian islands in the gulf, and others may be more important to securing the safe passage of ships – and naval vessels – through the Strait of Hormuz.
Seven of these islands – Abu Musa, Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb, Hengam, Qeshm, Larak and Hormuz – form what researchers at Sun Yat-sen University in Zhuhai, China, call Iran’s “arch defense.”
“A hypothetical curve connecting these islands would…