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TruthSage

Category: Iran

  • Defense Agreements

    A number of Arab Gulf nations have signed air defense agreements with Ukraine.

    This has the potential to provide a much increased level of defense against the attacks from Iran.

    Because of Russia’s invasion and continuing war against Ukraine, Ukraine has had to develop weapons that enable them to counter-attack the aggressor.

    I would hope that the Arab Gulf nations are also talking to Ukraine about those weapons, like the Firepoint 1 and 2, besides the purely defensive ones like the interceptor drones. For years the Arab nations have relied upon the protection of the United States. However, with the changes in warfare over the past few years, it is our opinion that they are going to have to become more self reliant and have more self based defensive and offensive weapons systems.

    They will need to be able to defend against missiles and against drones (air, land and sea). They also will need to be able to attack Iran. They need to be able to say, “If you attack our infrastructure, if you attack shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, if you attack us in any way, we will retaliate. We will attack your military facilities and factories, we will attack your ships, we will attack your oil and gas infrastructure, we will take away your revenue sources, and we will attack your general infrastructure if we must.

    Until there is a true regime change in Iran, Iran will not behave of their own volition. There has to be a price that they will pay that is high enough to deter them from continuing to spread terrorism across the Gulf and beyond.

  • To Change Iran

    The Iranian government- the ayatollahs, the mullahs, and the IRGC- have been a terrorist state for almost 50 years. They came to power through terror. They terrorize their own people, other nations in the region and nations around the world. Iran’s government thinks nothing of murdering tens of thousands of their own citizens in order to maintain control and power.

    To change the government of Iran, to gain freedoms for the Iranian people, something needs to break the IRGC. One way to potentially break the IRGC is to defund them, to cut off their revenue.

    They receive tens of billions of dollars a year from oil, gas, energy systems, IRGC controlled portions of the electrical systems, and through smuggling.

    It is through this wealth that they attract people to the IRGC, are able to terrorize their own people, sponsor terrorist organizations and spread terror beyond their borders.

    Cut off their funds, defund them, and they will lose their hold on Iran.

  • Hegseth Blame Mongering

    20260319

    The Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, held a press briefing at the Pentagon on March 19. In it he inexcusably and shamefully engaged in blame mongering to try to dodge the administrations responsibilities for it’s Iran policy and actions.

    Hegseth stated, “We are still dealing with the consequences of what Joe Biden did—namely, depleting our stockpiles and sending them not to our own military, but to Ukraine,” Hegseth said.

    So he is trying to blame Biden and Ukraine for our weapons stockpiles. This administration has been in office for over a year. Plenty of time to do something about any stockpile shortage.

    In addition, while Iran has been a bad actor for almost 50 years, the US was not attacked in this case. The administration chose to execute a military confrontation. They should have analyzed and weighed resources available against resources needed before starting the action.

    In regards to Ukraine, not very much was actually given to Ukraine and much of what went to Ukraine was slated for being rotated out of service.

    In the first 3 days of the Iran engagement approximately 800 guided missiles, primarily Patriots, were used. That is more than what has been expended in Ukraine in the 4 years since 2022. During those 4 years Ukrainian cities have been being bombed on a daily basis.

    On March 4, President Trump posted on Truth Social that the United States has a “virtually unlimited” weapons stockpile that could allow it to “fight forever.” So, which is it? Do we have a “virtually unlimited” stockpile as Donald Trump claims or “depleted stockpiles” as Hegseth claims.

    The truth matters.

  • Lacking Clarity

    20260319

    One of the problems with Trump is that by making his statements bombastic in nature he sacrifices clarity.

    Regarding the closing of the Strait of Hormuz he said, “I have chosen NOT to wipe out the Oil Infrastructure on the Island. However, should Iran, or anyone else, do anything to interfere with the Free and Safe Passage of Ships through the Strait of Hormuz, I will immediately reconsider this decision.”

    “Reconsider this decision” does do lay out clear boundaries and consequences. Something like, “Iran must irrevocably and clearly declare the Strait of Hormuz open and that they will in no way interfere with shipping within 48 hours. If they do not make such a declaration we will start to dismantle their oil infrastructure and capacity on Kharg Island.”

    More recently Iran bombed Qatar’s Ras Laffan LNG export facilities. Trump threatened Iran saying that the United States would “massively blow up the entirety of the South Pars Gas Field which is the portion that lies within Iran and supplies about 80% of Iran’s natural gas. This threat is after Iran’s attack on Qatar which sidelined about 12.8 million tons of LNG production annually and will take three to five years to repair.

    Trump should have clearly stated many weeks ago that attacks on Arab nations by Iran will not be tolerated and will trigger retaliatory strikes against Iranian oil infrastructure. Not the military targets that they have been focusing on but the infrastructure that provides a massive amount of revenue to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

  • Strait of Hormuz

    20260312

    Here are some thoughts regarding the current situation with the Strait of Hormuz.

    In Our Opinion:

    • Free navigation of legitimate purely commercial ships is essential to the entire international community. (Note, this does not include spy ships or military ships disguised as commercial ships or dual use military/commercial ships, or uninsured shadow fleet ships, etc. all of which are a different issue.) The interruption of shipping in the Strait of Hormuz could contribute to oil shortages, shortages of fertilizer which could lead to starvation in some countries, and shortages of other goods and materials.

    What Travels Through the Strait of Hormuz

    • Crude Oil
    • Bunker Fuel (This is the oil that fuel ships. A significant percentage comes through the Strait of Hormuz. If there becomes a shortage of Bunker Fuel it will be the poorer nations of the world that are hit the hardest.)
    • LPG/LNG (One impact of a shortage would impact electrical generation.)
    • Fertilizer

    What Iran Sends Through the Strait

    • Oil and other exports
    • This is the lifeblood of the country.
    • They also are dependent on imports that come through the Strait such as food staples

    What Does Iran Export

    • Crude oil and natural gas
    • Plastics
    • Fruits and nuts
    • Ores, slag and ash
    • Iron and Steel
    • Organic chemicals

    What Does Iran Import

    • Cereals (rice, wheat, corn) (also soybeans, barley and vegetable oils)
    • Machinery, nuclear reactors, boilers
    • Electrical and electronic equipment
    • Vehicles
    • Pharmaceutical products

    General Conditions

    • Iran does not currently grow enough food to feed its people
    • Key challenges to food self-sufficiency for Iran: water scarcity, droughts, rising demand
    • Oil and gas exports are the primary source of income for Iran. Petrochemicals also contribute.
    • We have seen estimates of the amount of crude oil flowing through the Strait of Hormuz as ranging from 20 to 25% of the world supply. If this is cut off it is not the rich nations of the world that are not going to be able to get oil. It will be the impoverished and developing nations that will be priced out of the market.

    What Iran Did

    • Basically Iran tried to blackmail the entire world into allowing it to continue to be a terrorist state when it threatened to close the Strait.
    • Keep in mind that Iran has been harassing shipping through the Strait for many years. Here are a few examples:
      • 2019 – limpet mine attacks
      • July 2019 – detained the Stena Impero
      • 2021 – drone strike killed two mariners
      • April 2024 – seized the MSC Aries
      • 2025 – detained a Togo-flagged tanker
      • December 2025 – detained an unnamed oil tanker
      • Between February 28 and March 11, 2026 13 attacks have been reported.
    • While effectively closing the Strait to everyone else, Iran has continued to export oil. Iran has shipped at least 11.7 million barrels of oil through the Strait to China between 02/28/2026 and 03/12/26.
    • Iran is continuing to function as a terrorist state disrupting the free commerce and trade of Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and all of their trading partners.
    • Iran has directly attacked Israel, US bases, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, Oman, Cyprus, Azerbaijan, and Turkey.

    What the US (President Trump) Should Have Done (And Should Still Immediately Do)

    • When Iran (the Islamic Republic and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) threatened to close the Strait and all shipping the US should have simply said, “The safe flow of shipping is critical to the world. You have 24 hours to declare that shipping will not be attacked and end all GPS jamming. If you attack any commercial ships anywhere (the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz, the Gulf of Oman) we will wipe out your ports including all facilities at the Kharg Island terminal and the Jask terminal as well as significant portions of your oil infrastructure and production capabilities. It will be decades before you are able to export any oil again.”
    • While it is true that much of the funding for the Islamic Republic and the IRGC is through illicit means, it is believed that this eliminating all Iran Oil exports would cut off much of the money/funding flowing to the Islamic Republic and IRGC.