Donald Trump has made another bold claim – this time involving oil. The US president told the Oval Office millions of barrels of the stuff had been secretly moved from under Iran’s noses through the Strait of Hormuz under the shadow of darkness.
He told reporters: ‘I’m just announcing today for the first time, but we’ve been taking out millions of barrels, because they just figured it out, so now that they figured it out, I can tell you it was very hard for me. I wanted to say it so badly I didn’t want to ruin it, but it was very hard. But millions of barrels of oil has come out.’
On his Truth Social platform, Trump said he directed the US military ‘to execute a secret mission’ to support oil tankers and other vessels through the strait. He wrote: ‘More than 200 Commercial Ships have safely travelled through the Strait,’ he wrote, adding the US – ‘NOT Iran’ – controls the waterway.
Trump’s Energy Secretary Chris Wright was pressed about Trump’s remarks claiming that the US has been sneaking oil from Iran. Asked whether he was aware of that, Wright replied: ‘I’m unaware.’ He was then asked whether Trump was lying. ‘Oh no, I do not think the president is lying. I think the president’s talking casually about our efforts to stop the flow of Iranian oil,’ Wright said.
On Wednesday, the US launched ‘self-defence’ rocket strikes in response to Iran’s ‘unwarranted and continued aggression’. Forces began launching strikes against multiple targets in Iran at 5.10pm EST, breaking a fragile ceasefire. Iran had fired upon Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan — all of which host U.S. troops. Trump told reporters at the White House ‘We’re going to hit them again hard today’ in retaliation for the loss of an Apache helicopter on Wednesday.
On Thursday night, Iran’s Mehr news agency reports that air defence systems were activated in western Tehran. Iranian media have also reported explosions in several other locations the southern towns of Sirik and Minab, Bandar Abbas and Qeshm island.
The US president did not provide any evidence to back up his claims. Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghae accused the US of war crimes after allegedly attacking civilian water infrastructure in Sirik, a port town in south Iran. The strikes reportedly destroyed two reservoirs that supplied drinking water to more than 20,000 residents, Baghaei claimed.
‘This is not collateral damage – it is a calculated war crime and a flagrant violation of human rights and international humanitarian law,’ he said. ‘The US must be held accountable for committing such systematic brutal attacks on civilian life-sustaining infrastructure.’
The military said it had fired on an oil tanker trying to transport oil from Iran in violation of its blockage on Iranian ports. It was the eighth merchant vessel disabled in the waters off Iran, U.S. Central Command announced in a social media post.
But Iran has proved resilient despite having faced weeks of heavy bombing. It was betting that its ability to effectively close the Strait of Hormuz is a strong bargaining chip. Both countries seem to be looking for a way to end the conflict — if they can manage to sell it as a win at home.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears intent on pursuing much more difficult goals: the collapse of Iran’s theocratic government, the elimination of its nuclear program, and the destruction of the Iranian-allied Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon. Israel’s stance will make compromise much harder.
