Tag: natural resources

US Considers Plan To Disrupt Iran’s Oil With Navy Interventions On High Seas

The Trump White House is currently considering a plan that would take the recently reinstated ‘maximum pressure’ campaign back to the high seas, akin to Trump’s first term as Commander-in-Chief.

This would involve US Navy ships stopping and inspecting Iranian oil vessels transiting the sea under an international mechanism aimed at thwarting “spread of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs),” sources in Reuters said. This had been done at times under Biden as well.

The idea is to crack down once again on Iranian oil sales in order to cut off crucial funding for Iran’s nuclear energy program, which both Israel and Washington suspect could easily be converted to an atomic weapons program.

“Trump officials are now looking at ways for allied countries to stop and inspect ships sailing through critical chokepoints such as the Malacca Strait in Asia and other sea lanes. That would delay delivery of crude to refiners. It could also expose parties involved in facilitating the trade to reputational damage and sanctions,” the sources told Reuters. 

“You don’t have to sink ships or arrest people to have that chilling effect that this is just not worth the risk. The delay in delivery… instills uncertainty in that illicit trade network,” one source clarified. 

The legal mechanism reportedly being examined goes all the way back the ‘war on terror’ 2003 Proliferation Security Initiative, which seeks to prevent the trafficking of WMDs. (Nevermind that the Bush-era ‘Iraqi WMDs’ scare was based on a complete myth and lie advanced by the NeoCons at the time).

“This mechanism could enable foreign governments to target Iran’s oil shipments at Washington’s request,” another source told Reuters.

The Biden administration had at times also sought to seize Iranian oil shipments, especially to disrupt sales in places like China, or also Syria.

As for the Syria situation, this policy helped tighten the noose around Assad in Western regime change efforts which led to his ouster – but the Syrian people continue to starve and be largely without fuel.

The US Treasury Department has frequently alleged that the Islamic Republic maintains a “shadow fleet” which sends Iranian crude oil worth hundreds of millions of dollars abroad. Tehran in response has argued it is fully its right to sell its energy resources utilizing international waters and passage.

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Europe Spent More on Russian Fuel in 2024 than Ukraine Aid

The European Union (EU) has been talking very tough about its unwavering and unlimited support for Ukraine since Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s disastrous visit to the White House, but data published by an independent research organization shows the EU spent more on Russian oil and gas in 2024 than it spent on Ukraine.

The Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), a group opposed to burning fossil fuels, calculated that European nations spent $23 billion buying Russian fuel in 2024, compared to $19.6 billion in foreign aid provided to Ukraine.

EU spending on Russian fuel was down six percent from the previous year, but this was largely due to falling prices, since the volume of Russian product imported by the EU was only down by one percent.

CREA also found Russian oil sales to China, India, and Turkey booming, although its total fossil fuel revenue of $254 billion was down three percent from 2023. Russia’s “shadow fleet” of some 558 tankers moved 167 million metric tons of oil in defiance of price caps.

“Despite a host of sanctions, Russian revenues in the third year have dropped by a mere 8% compared to the year prior to the invasion of Ukraine,” the report noted. Furthermore, the effect of sanctions appears to be diminishing, largely due to Russia’s skill at using its shadow fleet to evade price restrictions.

CREA recommended “tighter sanctions” against Russia that could “slash Kremlin revenues” by up to 20 percent – but those sanctions would require the EU to break its addiction to Russian fuel. European purchases have declined greatly since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, but Europe still provides roughly a quarter of Russia’s fossil fuel export revenue.

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Hours After Trump Paused All Arms To Ukraine, Zelensky Reportedly To Sign Minerals Deal Under ‘Trump’s Strong Leadership’

Is President Trump going to announce ‘mission accomplished’ on the Ukraine minerals deal during tonight’s speech before a joint session of Congress? A breaking Reuters headline strongly suggests this is the case:

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration and Ukraine plan to sign the much-debated minerals deal following a disastrous Oval Office meeting Friday in which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was dismissed from the building, four people familiar with the situation said on Tuesday.

President Donald Trump has told his advisers that he wants to announce the agreement in his address to Congress Tuesday evening, three of the sources said, cautioning that the deal had yet to be signed and the situation could change.

But as we’ve seen in the last several days since Friday, a lot can happen in one afternoon. Zelensky gave an ‘almost apology’ on Tuesday (below), but not quite what the administration seems to be asking for.

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Zelenskyy Caught Red-Handed Misleading the United States

In a bombshell revelation that shouldn’t surprise anyone paying attention to the Ukraine conflict, we now have evidence that President Zelenskyy has been misleading the United States about his dealings with our European allies. This deception runs deep, and President Trump is having none of it.

Retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer dropped this truth bomb during a recent Newsmax interview, revealing that a “battle of dueling narratives” exists between the White House and Ukraine over a minerals deal.

During the interview, Shaffer revealed that mere days before Trump’s inauguration, “the British signed an agreement with Ukraine to have exclusive rights to those [mineral rights] deals.”

“You can go check it out,” he said. “This is on the British UK website. It talks about this 100-year Ukraine and the U.K. signed a 100-year deal over security guarantees and economic development.”

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Democrat Sen. Chris Murphy, Who Met with Zelensky Before WH Visit, Confirms the Ukrainian Leader Had Already Decided to Torpedo Trump’s Mineral Deal Before Meeting with Trump

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky torpedoed a crucial mineral deal with the United States—before he even set foot in the White House to meet with President Trump.

And now, thanks to Democrat Senator Chris Murphy, we have confirmation that Zelensky had already decided to sabotage the agreement after cozying up with anti-Trump lawmakers.

On Friday, Zelensky first met with a bipartisan group of U.S. Senators at the Hay Adams Hotel—mere steps away from the White House—where he was showered with praise from deep-state warmongers.

This elite gathering included usual suspects like:

  • Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
  • Jacky Rosen (D-NV)
  • Richard Blumenthal (D-CT)
  • Chris Murphy (D-CT)
  • Peter Welch (D-VT)
  • Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)
  • Chris Van Hollen (D-MD)
  • Additionally, RINOs Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Roger Wicker (R-MS), and Charles Grassley (R-IA) were present at this closed-door gathering.

The goal? To ensure that Zelensky remained the poster boy for the endless Ukraine war at the expense of the American taxpayer.

Murphy himself admitted it. In a social media post, he gleefully declared that Zelensky was never going to accept President Trump’s mineral deal—an agreement Secretary of State Marco Rubio had already confirmed was a done deal.

“Just finished a meeting with President Zelensky here in Washington. He confirmed that the Ukrainian people will not support a fake peace agreement where Putin gets everything he wants and there are no security arrangements for Ukraine,” Murphy wrote at 11:15 a.m. on Friday.

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Violence, Minerals, and the Inevitable in Central Africa

In January, the rebel group M23 captured Goma, the largest city in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The ethnic Tutsi militants, who have been intermittently fighting the DRC government for years, restarted their rebellion in 2021 and have rapidly captured territory since the beginning of 2025. Since taking Goma, they have moved to the south and also captured the large city Bukavu, giving them control over an area that is home to millions of people. 

M23 is widely believed to be backed by Rwanda and its long-time President Paul Kagame, a charge that Kagame has always denied. This troubled region remains racked by brutal inter-ethnic and multinational conflict featuring countless armed factions. Perhaps more importantly, it contains some of the world’s largest deposits of key minerals, such as cobalt, which is necessary for the manufacture of electronics. Across a nearly impassable rainforest from the capital of Kinshasa, eastern Congo has proven impossible for the central government to rule, but the African Union and United Nations remain devoted to maintaining historic borders no matter how impractical. There is little the United States can or should do to help stabilize the situation, but it is long past time to consider accepting the breakup of the DRC.

The current troubles in in the eastern Congo date back to the 1994 Rwandan genocide, a story that is widely known but poorly understood. Western experts, in an extension of popular academic theories, have found it convenient to claim that the division of Hutus and Tustis was made up by Europeans as a method of colonial control. Although it was used that way, and their legal classification system was arbitrary and based on physical characteristics, this division within the society of this region dated back hundreds of years prior to the arrival of colonialism. The most simple way to understand the division is that the Tutsis were a noble class who kept cattle, while the Hutus were agriculturalist serfs. The colonialists ruled through the Tutsi monarchy, and Hutus overthrew both in the 1959 Rwandan Revolution.

In 1990, the Rwanda Patriotic Front, made up of Tutsi refugees based in Uganda, started a civil war trying to take back control of Rwanda, and in response in 1994 Hutu extremists began a genocide against the country’s Tutsi population. Ultimately, the RPF were able to chase the Hutu militants out of the country and won the civil war. In a dark historical irony, though the world had stood mostly silently during the genocide, or in France’s case sided with the government, once the genocidaires were exiled in the eastern DRC, their well-being became a major international concern. The Hutus who committed genocide received more assistance than the original victims; granted, the humanitarian needs were genuine, as they were facing famine and retributive violence.

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Trump’s Mineral Deal and Pillaging Ukraine

Normally, it is the country that defeated you in war, and not the country that defended you, that pillages you after the war. Unfortunately for Ukraine, its biggest military defender is set to pillage its resources as the two countries have now signed a minerals agreement after Trump warned that a refusal to sign would have led to “a lot of problems” for Ukraine.

Many mistakes have been made in the war over Ukraine’s minerals: Zelensky may have made a mistake in his strategy, and Trump may be mistaken in facts.

Offering Ukraine’s natural resources to the U.S. was Ukraine’s idea. As Biden yielded the White House to Trump, the Zelensky team saw Trump as less of a cold warrior and more of a transactional businessman. So, their strategy took on a new tone.

When Zelensky pitched his Ukrainian Victory Plan to the United States, he introduced a new idea: “[j]oint protection by the US and the EU of Ukraine’s critical natural resources and joint use of their economic potential.” In exchange for sustained and increased military aid, Zelensky offered the U.S and EU “an agreement… that would allow for joint investments and use of Ukraine’s natural resources, which Zelenskiy said were worth trillions of dollars.”

According to The Washington Post, Ukraine’s goal was to “convince Trump that Ukraine is not a charity case but a cost-effective economic and geostrategic opportunity that will ultimately enrich and secure the United States and its interests.”

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Zelensky Caves: Will Sign Over Ukraine’s Mineral Rights to U.S. as Compensation For Military Aid

Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky has agreed to sign over Ukraine’s mineral rights to the U.S. as compensation for the hundreds of billions of dollars given to the European nation for its war against Russia.

After initially rebuffing the Trump administration, Zelensky on Friday reportedly agreed to sign over the country’s mineral rights to the U.S. in exchange for military support.

“This is an agreement that can strengthen our relations, and the key is to work out the details to ensure its effectiveness,” he said in a nightly video address. “I look forward to the outcome—a just result.”

From the Wall Street Journal:

Zelensky was presented with a deal by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in Kyiv last week, but refused to sign, saying the Ukrainian side needed to study it further and that a deal should contain some form of security guarantees for Ukraine.

Ukrainian officials said that they had only a few hours to study it before it was presented to them.

An agreement could be signed as soon as Saturday, although it isn’t yet complete, people briefed on the talks said. The exact terms couldn’t be learned.

Though the exact terms of the deal have yet to be revealed, White House officials say Ukraine would give up 50% of its mineral resources, which include major reserves of iron ore, coal, titanium, lithium, and uranium.

In exchange, Zelensky has demanded “reliable and clear” security guarantees from the U.S. that ensure long-term protection from Russia.

Zelenskyy had previously refused to sign such a deal, prompting Trump to fire off a scathing statement calling the Ukrainian leader a “dictator.”

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Zelensky surrenders to Trump and ‘will sign mineral deal within hours’

Donald Trump appears to have won his trade standoff with Volodymyr Zelensky, as the Ukrainian president is set to give in and sign a deal giving the U.S. access to deposits of critical minerals.

The deal was seen as crucial for satisfying Washington’s demands for a peace settlement between Ukraine and Russia to end their three-year long war. 

It’s a staggering surrender from Zelensky, who had said just days earlier: ‘I defend Ukraine, I can’t sell our country.’ 

Zelensky said on Friday that officials from his country and the U.S. were working on concluding an economic deal to ensure that the accord worked and was fair to Kyiv. 

‘We’re signing an agreement, hopefully in the next fairly short period of time,’ Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked about a deal for Ukraine’s minerals.

The Wall Street Journal later cited several people familiar with the matter that the deal is close and will be signed within hours.

It comes following word that Zelensky angered Trump so much during negotiations that Trump threatened to completely pull US funding from Ukraine, Axios reported. 

Zelensky had apparently worn out his welcome with the entire American negotiating team – which included the president, JD Vance, Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and National Security Advisor Michael Waltz – in the span of a week.

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US official demands Zelenskyy return to talks over critical minerals deal

US President Donald Trump’s national security adviser has demanded that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy return to negotiations over a critical minerals deal with the US, amid a deepening rift between Washington and Kyiv.

Zelenskyy had on Wednesday rejected US plans to strike a deal for a share of Ukraine’s mineral wealth to repay Washington for wartime aid, saying the US offered no specific security guarantees in the agreement.

“He needs to come back to the table,” Mike Waltz said of Zelenskyy at a press briefing on Thursday.

“President Trump is obviously very frustrated right now with President Zelensky, the fact that he hasn’t come to the table, that he hasn’t been willing to take this opportunity that we have offered,” he said.

The comments came shortly after the US cancelled a planned news conference with Zelenskyy and a US envoy in Kyiv.

The Ukrainian leader had planned to address the media alongside Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg, the US envoy for Ukraine, following talks in Kyiv on Thursday.

“At the request of the American side, the format of the meeting provides for protocol filming and does not include statements or questions,” Ukrainian presidential spokesperson Serhii Nikiforov told reporters.

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