TEHRAN - Hawkish American senator Lindsey Graham has shocked the Iranian people by indirectly suggesting that the U.S. war on Iran is intended to gain control over the country’s abundant oil reserves.

His statements have made both the proponents and critics of the Islamic Republic’s domestic and foreign policies indignant.

The Republican senator made such alarming remarks as the joint U.S.-Israeli illegal war against Iran entered the second week.  

Many political pundits and former and current officials in Iran and abroad were warning and continue to warn that the “oil-thirsty” Donald Trump wants Iran’s oil riches. They also caution that the Zionist Israeli regime is seeking to partition Iran.

On March 2, Business Insider ran an anti-Iran article titled “From Iran to Venezuela, Trump Wants to Control the World's Oil”. The writer, Noah Shachtman, analyzed how Trump's “energy dominance” plan helped fuel the new war in Iran. Shachtman said in 1987, when Trump was first flirting with running for president, he told an audience in New Hampshire that the U.S. should attack Iran "and take over some of their oil." 
 
In an interview with Fox News on Sunday Graham was quite direct. He said: “When this regime goes down, we are going to have a new Middle East, and we are going to make a ton of money.”

There is no doubt that the United States under President Trump has embraced a colonial era strategy in the world. His wish to annex northern neighbor Canada by calling it the United States’ 51st state and seeking to take over Greenland by force, if necessary, speaks volumes.

Trump also does not miss any opportunity to boast the benefits from the Venezuelan oil since he ordered the abduction of the country’s president Nicolás Maduro in violation of international law. For example, in his 2026 State of the Union address to Congress on Feb. 24 (four days before the start of the war against Iran), he said the U.S.  has received more than 80 million barrels of oil from Venezuela, which holds the world’s largest oil riches.

While speaking at the Shield of the Americas Summit in Florida on March 7, the selfish president also said: "We're taking out tremendous amounts of (Venezuelan) oil.”

Again, at a press conference on March 9, Trump said 100 million barrels of oil from Venezuela had been brought to the refineries in Houston and that an additional 100 million barrels of oil from there was also coming, astro AWANI reported. 

The avaricious Trump and the war-hungry Graham use different languages in pursuit of their ill-intentioned moves. The only difference is that the senator is more open.    

In his interview with Fox News, Senator Graham drew a comparison between Iran to Venezuela, saying, “Venezuela and Iran have 31 percent of the world’s oil reserves. We’re going to have a partnership with 31 percent of the known reserves. This is China’s nightmare. This is a good investment.” 

Such remarks by the Republican senator are shameful, disgusting, and very dangerous. His abhorrent statements refresh people’s mind of the CIA’s move in orchestrating a coup against the democratically elected government of Prime Minister Mohmmad Mosadeq in 1953 for nationalizing the Iranian oil.

Graham is also a person who, according to the Wall Street Journal, during his trips to Israel “coached” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyhu “on how to lobby President Trump for (military) action against Iran.”
    
Graham and like-minded persons must feel assured that his ill wishes enrage the Iranian people and make them to strongly guard their country’s riches and sovereignty. These remarks are so reprehensible that they infuriate even those Iranians who poured into the streets in large numbers on January 8 and 9 to protest the economic instability and depreciation of national currency.