I tried to post this with a commentary a few mnuts ago, but it doesn’t seem to have been published. I may have forgotten to push the Publish button.

Anywa, I started from yesterday’s post by Scott Bessant: June 11, 2026:

The Iranian regime will lose the zero-sum game it is playing.

Any damage it inflicts on our allies in the Gulf will be paid for with funds extracted from Iranian Accounts.

Any tolls paid to the Persian Gulf Strait Authority will be offset by funds extracted from their accounts.

Every attack Iran launches will only deepen the economic and financial consequences it faces.

            The US already had seized some $100  billion of Iranian assets, and Iran insisted that at least $12 billion be returned to it as a condition of good faith in signing any preliminary agreement.

            And any such an agreement, Iran added, should include payment of reparations to it, not by it.

President Trump in a Truth Social post stated that:

“At some point in the not too distant future, we will be taking Kharg Island. And other oil infrastructure points, and assume total control of their Oil and Gas Markets, much like we did with Venezuela, which is working out brilliantly for both Venezuela and the United States of America.”

Fn: Kharg Island is the site for Iran’s export terminals. It is 8 square miles, some 17 miles off the Iranian shore and hence well within sight of Iranian radar and military control in the event that any military invasion is attempted.

            Iran responded with a warning that if it were deprived of oil, so would all of the Arab OPEC countries and their customers throughout the world, because Iran would close down the Strait of Hormuz and destroy oil production and export capacity rather than be the sole loser. The rest of the world was thus obliged to choose just who would control the Iranian, OPEC and hence the main source of world oil: Would it be Iran or the United States?