Thanks to the U.S. president’s keen political acumen, the Islamic Republic has lost a key point of leverage.
Am Thinker | March 14, 2026
Donald Trump speaking at CPAC 2011 in Washington, D.C. By Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America – Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikipedia
n March 11, Iran attacked an oil-producing site in Oman. The strike hit fuel storage tanks at the Port of Salalah, a major energy hub on Oman’s Arabian Sea coast used for tanker refueling and storage. Reports say drones hit several tanks and set parts of the facility on fire.
What makes this attack so shocking is not just the target; it is who got targeted. Oman is the Gulf state closest to Iran politically, and it has long served as the main mediator between Iran and the West. Yet Tehran still went after its oil infrastructure. That tells you a lot about how Iran operates in the Middle East. Iran’s message is clear: No oil infrastructure in the Gulf is off limits. And this is not new behavior. Iran has previously targeted oil production even in countries that are not openly hostile.
Saudi Arabia, for example, signed a Chinese-mediated détente with Iran roughly four years ago. Yet key energy sites have still been hit or targeted. These include the Ras Tanura refinery and export terminal, one of the largest oil export hubs on Earth and a critical gateway for Saudi crude, as well as the Berri oil field. This important producing field feeds the eastern Saudi export infrastructure. Across the wider Gulf region, the pattern continues. Oil infrastructure that has been struck or threatened includes the Salalah oil storage tanks and the Duqm fuel storage facility in Oman, the Sitra/BAPCO refinery and Mina Salman oil port in Bahrain, and the Jebel Ali fuel storage terminal in the United Arab Emirates. Iran has also threatened shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow maritime corridor through which roughly one fifth of the world’s oil supply moves every day.
But this is not random revenge. Iran appears to understand world politics extremely well. In the Middle East, there is an old saying: Iranians are natural carpet weavers. They do not mind working slowly, as long as the pattern is precise. What we are seeing now fits that philosophy. Iran appears to be trying to undermine Gulf oil production and disrupt global oil shipping, especially through the Strait of Hormuz. The objective is obvious: Push oil prices higher, send economic shockwaves across Europe and global markets, and pressure the United States to back off the war.
Many analysts used to dismiss this scenario for one big reason: China. Iran exports much of its oil to China, and Beijing is widely seen as Iran’s main geopolitical backer. The thinking went that China would never let Iran disrupt global oil flows. But China has massive strategic oil reserves — enough to keep its economy running during a crisis like this. No one really knows what Beijing is thinking, but it is hard to imagine Iran making such a bold move without at least some level of Chinese approval or tolerance.
Yet the strategy is not working. First, the United States is not dependent on Gulf oil. President Trump made the United States an oil- and major energy–exporting country. Because of that shift in American energy policy, Iran cannot strangle the U.S. economy through Gulf oil the way producers once could in the 1970s. Second, Washington has access to Venezuelan oil supplies, which can be redirected to global markets and to Europe if necessary. In other words, there is no genuine global oil shortage.
The real issue has been the panic in energy markets. Some analysts immediately claimed that tankers could no longer pass through Hormuz because war risk insurance had been withdrawn and shipping companies were pulling back. In response, President Trump ordered the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) to step in and provide political risk insurance and financial guarantees for maritime trade in the Gulf, including a $20-billion reinsurance program to keep tankers sailing. The DFC is the U.S. government’s development finance institution, capable of providing loans, guarantees, and political risk insurance to support international trade and investment.
This step matters enormously. Iran’s entire strategy depends on disrupting tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. If insurance disappears, tankers stop sailing. If tankers stop sailing, markets panic, and oil prices explode. By guaranteeing insurance for ships moving through the Strait of Hormuz, the United States effectively removed that pressure point and kept global energy trade moving.
What is also questionable here is something many people inside the oil and energy businesses already understand. They know there is no genuine oil supply threat right now, and they also know that this war is unlikely to last long enough to create anything resembling the 1973 oil embargo crisis. The global energy system today is far more diversified, and global reserves are enormous. People inside the industry understand this perfectly. They do not need anyone to explain it to them. Yet the narrative of catastrophic shortages and runaway prices keeps being repeated.
So when some voices continue to scare American markets and American consumers about oil shortages and price shocks, a serious question arises. Iran’s strategy works only if markets panic and oil prices skyrocket. Without fear in financial markets, there is no mechanism for Tehran to trigger the economic shock it wants. Those who keep amplifying fears about imminent oil shortages and runaway prices are therefore objectively aiding the Iranian regime’s strategy. Whether they recognize it or not, they are helping create the exact market panic Tehran needs for its plan to succeed. At best, they may simply be trying to profit from fear in volatile markets. At worst, they may belong to the same globalist circles that see profit in sustaining permanent fear, conflict, and geopolitical instability.
Iran might be trying to weaponize oil markets and shipping lanes. But the basics of the global energy system — strong supply, large reserves, and American production — make that strategy much less powerful than Tehran hoped.
In reality, President Trump’s energy policies have already taken much of the sting out of Iran’s oil weapon. By turning the U.S. into an energy exporter, ensuring that America has access to other oil supplies like Venezuela’s, and guaranteeing tanker insurance through the Strait of Hormuz, Washington took away the leverage Tehran sought.
Without those moves, Iran’s oil strategy might have worked. With them, Iran’s plan to weaponize oil markets looks much weaker than expected.
In short, Trump stopped the kind of energy shock that once crippled Western economies and saved Americans from a repeat of the 1973 energy crisis.
Well done DJT! Now we just need to bring down the scumbags needlessly driving up the prices.