US Vice President J. D. Vance said on Monday that President Donald Trump was sending a message to Iran through his social media post about Kharg Island.
In response to a question about Trump’s post, Vance said: “The president likes to change his style a little on social media, and he is the first to deny announcing any military operations through these means, but I think he is sending a message to the Iranians.”
Trump had published a one-line post on social media, accompanied by an artificial intelligence-generated video, which showed Kharg Island, an energy hub in Iran, as being destroyed.
Reuters confirmed that the video clip attached to the post, which shows massive explosions, was most likely manufactured, based on software specialized in detecting images and clips that had been manipulated by artificial intelligence.
Kharg Island is of great importance to the Iranian energy sector, as it handled 90% of Iranian oil exports before the war that began on February 28.
Attacking the island would seriously disrupt Iran’s energy trade and put enormous pressure on its economy.
