The U.S. Can Easily Seize Iran’s Strategic Islands
12th August 2026
Today, CENTCOM and the White House are at a flexion point. It is not clear that they will be able to bomb the fanatical Iranian regime into submission, while abandoning the effort to open the Straits of Hormuz is not a politically viable option. It does appear to the mathematically oriented that bombing combined with the blockade of Iranian ports cannot fail to collapse the already failing Iranian economy. The trouble is, that hasn’t happened, yet. The White House and CENTCOM need a stratagem that will rock Tehran and cause them to, “Drink from the Chalice of Poison,” and submit to Washington’s demands.
Some of us at The Dupuy Institute (TDI) believe that shove to the chalice might come in the form of taking several islands in the Persian Gulf. In 1987-88, the Iranians had several surveillance platforms that were highly problematic to U.S. Navy efforts to safely convoy neutral oil tankers out of the Gulf. Eventually, several were destroyed, but the Iranian islands were not touched – undoubtedly to maintain the idea that U.S. forces were neutral and would get involved only when U.S., or U.S.-protected assets were attacked. These small Iranian islands continued to be a thorn in the side of U.S. and its Gulf allies.
Today, these islands continue to serve as intelligence outposts to monitor Gulf shipping. Specifically, Abu Musa, Siri, and Greater and Lesser Tunb Islands have small or no garrisons and could be relatively easy to seize from Iran and put an end to this surveillance. Tehran and its IRGC would be partially blinded, and it would reduce their situational awareness in the Gulf, making it more difficult for them to target commercial shipping moving into the Strait of Hormuz.