Seven months into a war with Iran, President Trump has floated the seizure of Iranian oil reserves as both a war-financing mechanism and a negotiating posture, pointing to a recent Venezuelan oil arrangement as his model. The proposal arrives as diplomacy over the Strait of Hormuz has stalled, a planned multilateral meeting in Oman has been postponed, and crude oil has crossed $100 a barrel for the first time in months. In the long arc of resource conflicts, this moment sits at a familiar crossroads: where military leverage and economic necessity blur the line between statecraft and extraction