Iran's Oil Reserves and Foreign Aggression

Much of world's third largest reserve consists of Iranian Light crude, which is almost as valuable as West Texas Intermediate.

John Leake

This morning I reviewed the history of Western aggression and intelligence agency intrigue against Iran.

In August 1941, Britain and the Soviet Union jointly invaded Iran to secure its oil fields and railroads to supply the Soviet Red Army with fuel to fight the Germans during World War II.

The Allies occupied the country until 1946, while the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (now known as BP) dominated the nation’s oil industry, fostering widespread resentment among Iranians who enjoyed little benefit from the exploitation of their natural resources. For example, in the year 1947, the company took approximately 82 percent of the profits from the oil it extracted from Iran.

Widespread popular discontent resulted in the rise of Mohammad Mosaddegh, a nationalist politician who became prime minister in 1951 and who proposed that Iran acquire a much larger share of the profits. Following failed attempts by the Iranian government in the years 1948-1950 to negotiate a 50/50 deal with the company, as Saudi Arabia had recently done, the government of Prime Minister Mosaddegh nationalized the company.

Two years later, in 1953, the CIA and Britain’s MI6 orchestrated a coup that overthrew Mosaddegh and restored Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi—who briefly fled the country in August 1953— to absolute power.

The coup deepened resentment among ordinary Iranians who regarded the United States as the usurper of their sovereignty. The Shah ruled Iran as a dictator, enforcing his will against dissidents with his SAVAK secret police and intelligence agency that often tortured and executed dissidents. The US government backed the Shah with billions of dollars of military assistance, and Israel maintained friendly relations with his government.

In 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini came to power as the leader of a popular revolution that overthrew Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, culminating in Khomeini’s return from exile on February 1, 1979. He united disparate factions against the Shah’s repressive, Westernized regime, thereby establishing the Islamic Republic and becoming Supreme Leader via a landslide referendum.

The US responded by imposing sanctions on Iran, which was already struggling financially. These sanctions remain in effect today. Nearly all of Iran’s revenue is black market oil sales

In 1980-1988, Iraq invaded Iran with heavy support from the US government, including chemical and biological (anthrax and bubonic plague) agents. This war lasted eight years and ended in a stalemate. Approximately 200,000 Iranians were killed during the war.

In 1988, the USS Vincennes, operating in Iran territorial waters on behalf of Iraq, shot down Iran Air Flight 655, a passenger plane, killing all 290 civilians.

What has motivated all of the above foreign aggression against Iran?

We in the West are fond of vituperative moralizing about the depravity of foreign governments—especially that of uncooperative foreign governments sitting on large and strategically located oil reserves.

I knew that Iran had enormous oil reserves, but I didn’t realize until this morning that Iranian Light is one of the best crude oils in the world, far lighter and sweeter (with less sulfur) than Venezuelan crude, which has much higher production, transportation, and refinery costs.

According to Google, Iranian Light is a highly desirable, medium-light crude (33–36° API) with 1.36–1.5% sulphur, serving as a "Goldilocks" grade that yields roughly 70% premium fuels like diesel and jet fuel. It is lighter and easier to refine than Russian Urals (30–32° API), yet heavier/sourer than US WTI (39–41° API). It is prized by Asian/European refineries for high-value output without excessive processing costs.

While pondering the value of Iranian Light crude, I wondered if Donald Trump had ever made any public pronouncements about Iran’s oil reserves, and I found the following video.

I’ve long been confident that if you want to know the true motives underlying great power politics, you need to follow the money—especially when trillions of potential money are strategically located.

As was the case of Saddam’s alleged WMD and the “mushroom cloud over Manhattan” that George W. Bush proclaimed he needed to prevent, I suspect that all the talk about Iran wanting to acquire nuclear weapons for offensive purposes is pure humbug.

Rarely if ever mentioned in the western media is the reality that acquiring nuclear weapons is a perfectly rational means of deterrence—especially from aggression from Israel and the United States, both of which are armed with nuclear weapons.

This is precisely why, in May-June 1963, President Kennedy wrote sternly worded letters to Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. Kennedy stated that he firmly opposed Israel acquiring a nuclear weapon. As he reasoned, if Israel acquired a nuclear weapon, it would cause the other powers in the region to conclude that they urgently needed to do the same.

Here it is useful to compare Iran to Pakistan. The latter country is often accused by the United States of sponsoring terrorism and is strongly suspected of having provided a haven for Osama bin Laden for five years in a secure compound in Abbottabad, a military garrison town close to Islamabad.

Following India’s acquisition and testing of a nuclear bomb in 1974, Pakistan began developing its own nuclear weapons against strong Israeli opposition. In 1981, the Mossad sent letter bombs to firms in West Germany and Switzerland that were assisting in the effort. Though Pakistan succeeded in acquiring and testing nuclear weapons in 1998, it has never threatened Israel with an atomic bomb attack. The government of Pakistan believes that possessing nuclear weapons is a deterrent against aggression from India and other nations in the region.

After North Korea was “bombed into the stone age” by the US Air Force in 1950—the most vicious act of aggression that destroyed 85% of all North Korean cities and killed 20% of its civilian population—the North Korean regime concluded it would be very useful to have nuclear weapons to deter further aggression from the United States.

In 2006, North Korea began successfully testing nuclear weapons. Since then, its dynastic dictator, Kim Jong Un—widely regarded as aggressive and unpredictable—has repeatedly threatened “shocking and unimaginable disaster,” and “total destruction” of the United States if it takes military action against North Korea.

Despite his threats, most military analysts believe he is a rational actor who understands the doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) and therefore maintains nuclear weapons as a means of deterrence rather than suicidal aggression.

With the US and Israel now waging war on Iran after killing Ali Khamenei and several of his family members in the opening bombardment, it seems likely the Iranian government will now try to move forward with enriching its 60 percent uranium to full weapons grade. Why wouldn’t they?

The so-called “Neocon” establishment of blowhards in Washington often loudly proclaims that the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) deal with Iran to limit its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief was “flawed” and “imperfect” and “gave Iran too much.”

The plan explicitly required extensive International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) supervision. The IAEA was tasked with independently verifying and monitoring Iran’s compliance with nuclear-related commitments. Maybe the plan was flawed, but then again, what complex human arrangement is perfect?

In 2018, the first Trump administration withdrew from the agreement, citing various shortcomings in the arrangement. By withdrawing from JCPOA, Trump returned the US to a state of overt hostility with Iran, which responded by limiting the agreed upon IAEA inspections.

I am frequently accused of being a naive pacifist who doesn’t understand the viciousness of our adversaries. To these critics I reply: You do not appreciate the viciousness of your own US government and military-industrial-complex. This is the same complex of ruthless central power that was instrumental in creating SARS-CoV-2 and the mRNA gene shots that were forced on the citizens of the United States and Israel.

Dedicated votaries of Trump’s Cult of Personality often command me “to stick with reporting on the dangers of the COVID-19 vaccine.” They ought to know that Dr. Peter McCullough and I have, since Dec. 2022, called for these shots to be taken off the market. Why doesn’t President Trump do this?

Regarding war: I agree with Benjamin Franklin, who famously wrote in a Sept. 11, 1783 letter to Josiah Quincy, Sr, “ In my Opinion there never was a good War, or a bad Peace.”

Since Cain killed Abel, humans have endlessly decried the villainy and depravity of other humans, and how all of these “enemies” must be vanquished with righteous might.

Most of the time, fulminating about the vices and sins of others is a handy way of avoiding the far more difficult task of facing our own. As it is Holy Saturday, it’s perhaps fitting for me to remind my readers of the following teaching.

Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

—Matthew 7:3-5

I often think of this exhortation while reviewing the latest release of Epstein Files. Google searches for the Epstein Files have dropped off 95% since the start of the Iran War, but I have continued to examine them.

The US government nows spends over a trillion dollars per year on the military. If a millionth of this effort and ingenuity were spent on conflict resolution, we wouldn’t now be embroiled in this terrible war that is certainly going to produce an array of unfathomably terrible consequence hundreds of millions of people.