The U.S. Used to Seize Iranian Oil Tankers. Now Iran Is Seizing Ours.

Toward the end of the Obama administration and during the Trump administration, the U.S. fought a largely successful financial and economic war against Iran. The war had to do with Iran’s efforts to enrich uranium to a level that could be used to produce nuclear weapons to destroy Israel.

Sanctions included freezing Iranian bank accounts, kicking Iran out of the SWIFT banking message traffic system, banning most Iranian exports, seizing contraband, secondary boycotts against countries that did do business with Iran, and much more.

Obama relaxed the sanctions when Iran agreed to negotiations on what became the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The JCPOA was badly flawed because it allowed Iran to proceed with uranium enrichment after a five-year hiatus.

Trump tore up the JCPOA and reinstated even more severe sanctions than Obama. These were highly effective and indefinitely delayed Iran’s nuclear plans (this delay was helped by a campaign of sabotage and assassination conducted by Israeli intelligence and CIA assets).

Under Biden, we have the worst of all possible worlds. Biden has reinstated the hands-off policy of the JCPOA without the teeth of sanctions.

Since 2021, the Iranians have worked flat-out at uranium enrichment. Intelligence community estimates are that Iran may be just weeks or months from producing nuclear weapons.

Iran can also see that Biden is feeble-minded and is not really in charge. Most of the White House staff and many donors are antisemitic, anti-Israel, and pro-Iranian.

As reported in this article, Iran has now turned the tables on the U.S. and is seizing oil tankers bound for U.S. refineries in Houston, Texas, and elsewhere in the U.S. The U.S. Navy Fifth Fleet based in Bahrain said this is the fifth such Iranian seizure in recent years. The seized vessel described in this article is the Advantage Sweet, an oil tanker headed from Kuwait to Houston.

Not only is Iran not bound by the JCPOA, but they are also not intimidated by the U.S. Navy. This is just one more example of what happens when the U.S. Commander-in-Chief has the mental capacity of a child.

Iran, Russia, China, and North Korea are all on the march against U.S. interests. Who’s next? Unfortunately, we’re likely to find out soon.

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