Trump Floats Seizing Iranian Oil as Hormuz Diplomacy Stalls

President Trump stood at the Irish Open golf championship on Sunday and sketched out a scenario that would reshape the Middle East's energy landscape: the United States could stay in its seven-month war with Iran and simply take control of the country's oil reserves, much as it had done with Venezuela earlier in the year.

The comparison was not casual. In August, Washington had negotiated an arrangement with Venezuela that granted the U.S. majority control over more than 65 billion barrels of oil—more than double America's own proven reserves—in exchange for $209 billion flowing into Venezuela's state treasury. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had framed the deal as a dual victory: oil access for the U.S., plus close to $100 billion in private investment to rebuild Venezuela's economy. Trump now pointed to that precedent as proof of concept. The revenue from Venezuela, he said, had "paid for the war many times."

The timing of his remarks was pointed. Diplomacy over the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which roughly a fifth of the world's oil and gas passes, had just stalled. A planned meeting in Oman between Iran and Gulf nations—scheduled for Monday to discuss and potentially sign an agreement on a new Iran-Oman shipping corridor through the strait—was postponed on Sunday. Oman's foreign minister cited the need for "consensus," a diplomatic phrase that masked deeper disagreement.

The strait itself had been locked in a naval standoff since February, when the war with Iran began. Iranian forces had imposed a blockade; the U.S. had responded with its own, bombing Iranian coastline to contest Tehran's control. Ships deemed non-compliant faced Iranian strikes. The result was a stranglehold on global energy flows that kept crude prices elevated. On Monday, oil surged past $100 a barrel for the first time since May, driven higher when Saudi Arabia shut down a key East-West pipeline after damage from Iraqi drones.

Trump predicted the conflict would end this year, possibly after November's midterm elections, and promised that gasoline prices would "drop like a rock" once it did. He insisted he would accept only the "right deal," while claiming that Tehran had been "calling constantly" for peace talks—a statement Iran has previously rejected as false. No direct U.S.-Iran negotiations were underway.

The blockade had also emboldened other actors. Yemen's Houthi rebels, aligned with Tehran, had launched a blistering offensive in recent days that gave them leverage over the Bab el-Mandeb, a second critical chokepoint for global shipping. A June accord between Washington and Tehran had already collapsed over disagreements about the Strait of Hormuz itself. Now, with Trump openly discussing the seizure of Iranian oil as a war-financing mechanism, the diplomatic path forward had narrowed further, and the world's energy markets remained hostage to a conflict with no clear resolution in sight.