President Donald Trump has suggested that the United States is trying to seize control of Iran’s oil industry and appears to argue that more time is needed for war.
“If we had a little more time, we could easily open the Strait of Hormuz, get our oil, and build our wealth,” the US president said in a social media post on Friday.
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“Wouldn’t that be a ‘spout’ for the world??”
It is unclear how the United States will open up Hormuz, which Iran effectively blocked early in the conflict and caused energy prices to soar.
President Trump has been promising for weeks that the United States would soon reopen the strait. A month ago, he said U.S. Navy ships would accompany oil carriers through the strategic waterway.
But the U.S. military said it was “not prepared” to escort slow-moving ships through the narrow strait, where its ships could become easy targets for Iranian drones and missiles.
President Trump’s claims that the United States will “take” Iranian oil signal an escalation in his rhetoric.
Under the international law principle of perpetual sovereignty over natural resources adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1962, oil and minerals become the property of the country in which they are located.
“The free and beneficial exercise of the sovereignty of peoples and States over their natural resources must be facilitated by mutual respect between States based on the equality of sovereignty,” the resolution states.
President Trump regularly calls for “taking the oil” in countries where the U.S. has military intervention, such as Iraq and Venezuela.
Iran’s system of governance remains intact despite assassinations of some senior officials and daily shelling by the United States and Israel, and it still controls the country’s natural resources.
It is publicly known that the United States has no military presence in Iran. President Trump did not provide details about how his administration plans to manage the country’s oil.
In Venezuela, since the U.S. military abducted President Nicolás Maduro in January, his successor, Delcy Rodriguez, has been working with the Trump administration to sell large amounts of oil.
Earlier this week, President Trump suggested it was possible to replicate the Venezuela model in Iran, but it would require a prolonged war.
“We could just take away their oil,” Trump said. “But I don’t know if our people have the patience to do that. It’s a shame.”
“They want to see the end. If we’re going to stay there, I’d rather just take the oil. It would be very easy, and I’d prefer that. But the people of this country say, ‘Just win. We’ve won big, so just win. Go home.’
At the beginning of the conflict, the Trump administration said the war would last four to six weeks.
The war enters its sixth week on Saturday.
Although President Trump claims that the U.S. military has crushed Iran’s military power, Tehran continues to blockade Hormuz and fire missiles and drones at Israel and other targets across the region.
President Trump has threatened to bomb civilian infrastructure across Iran, including power plants and desalination facilities.
On Wednesday, he shared footage of Iran’s main civilian bridge being destroyed and warned of similar attacks in the future.
Legal experts say bombing civilian facilities amounts to collective punishment and is prohibited under international law.
On Friday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghai likened the U.S. attack on the bridge to Islamic State (ISIS) tactics.
“This Daesh/ISIS-style terrorist war crime, along with similar attacks on Iran’s critical infrastructure, reveals an undeniable truth: Their ultimate goal is the destruction of Iran.”
