President Trump said on Truth Social on Sunday morning that Cuba should make a deal before it’s too late. Venezuela is no longer going to supply them with oil and cash. Cuba lived for many years, on large amounts of OIL and MONEY from Venezuela. In return, Cuba provided “Security Services” for the last two […] The post President Trump Sends the First Warning to Cuba appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

I missed this last week. Al Gore is back. Former Vice President Al Gore on Wednesday condemned President Donald Trump’s move to withdraw the U.S. from United Nations-linked climate initiatives. Gore lives in two massive mansions. Who can forget him calling President Trump Adolf Hitler for noticing the Climate Change hoax was merely a power […] The post Al Gore Condemns the President for 86ing the UN ‘s Climate Power Grab appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

Trump Threatens To Freeze Exxon Out Of Venezuela Oil Deal After CEO Voices Skepticism

President Donald Trump said on Sunday night that he is leaning toward keeping Exxon Mobil, the largest oil company in the United States, out of his plans for Venezuela oil after the company’s CEO told a White House roundtable that the country is “uninvestable.” Trump met with leaders of multiple oil companies at the White House on Friday to discuss the administration’s $100 billion plan to rebuild Venezuela’s oil market. Executives from Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Shell, Marathon, and Valero were also in attendance at the roundtable and, for the most part, expressed enthusiasm about opportunities in Venezuela, which will be under U.S. oversight following the capture of dictator Nicolás Maduro. Exxon CEO Darren Woods, however, expressed some caution about restarting operations in Venezuela, saying that “significant changes” are needed in the country’s infrastructure. “We have had our assets seized there twice and so you can imagine to re-enter a third time would require some pretty significant changes from what we’ve historically seen and what is currently the state,” Woods said. “Today it’s uninvestable.” Speaking to reporters on Air Force One, Trump expressed displeasure with Exxon. “You know, we have so many that wanted [to be involved] – I’d probably be inclined to keep Exxon out. I didn’t like their response. They’re playing too cute.” Woods argued that Venezuela would need to change its regulatory and legal frameworks while guaranteeing the protection of foreign capital. He added that Exxon was prepared to send a team to the country to assess the condition of Venezuela’s oil infrastructure. Asked by Trump how long it would take Exxon Mobil to get started in Venezuela, he replied, “We can hit the ground in the next couple of weeks.” “That’s what we want,” Trump said. “We want speed and quality.” Trump also promised security guarantees for the oil companies that go into Venezuela. Exxon was forced out of the country in 2007 when former socialist dictator Hugo Chávez required foreign companies to hand over control of their companies to a state-owned oil company. Exxon said it was forced to leave behind about $20 billion in assets after the nationalization of the oil industry in Venezuela. An international arbitration court ordered Venezuela to pay Exxon approximately $1.6 billion in 2014, but the socialist government has disputed that ruling, and Exxon has yet to receive payment, the Houston Chronicle reported. Exxon is not the only U.S. oil company to lose billions of dollars after being forced out of Venezuela. Citgo also estimates that the Venezuelan government is holding around $20 billion in its assets, and ConocoPhillips says it was forced to leave $12 billion in the country and is still owed around $10 billion by the Venezuelan government. Chevron was the only American oil company to continue operating in Venezuela after the government nationalized the oil industry, but it was forced to relinquish control of many of its assets. Trump said during the roundtable that his administration is not seeking to recover lost assets in Venezuela. “We’re not going to look at what people lost in the past, because that was their fault. That was a different president. You’re going to make a lot of money, but we’re not going to go back,” he said. The president believes the United States can rebuild Venezuela’s oil industry in less than two years, provided “very large” American companies invest in the project. “A tremendous amount of money will have to be spent and the oil companies will spend it, and then they’ll get reimbursed by us or through revenue,” he said last week.

The current demonstrations against the Iranian regime are the most consequential challenge to the government’s legitimacy since the birth of the Islamic theocracy in 1979. Behnam Ben Taleblu, senior director of the Iran program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, spoke to Morning Wire about the protests rocking the country. Iranians who have joined the anti-government protests in recent weeks are directly challenging the legitimacy of the cleric-controlled system. “Iranians pushed past reform, Iranians pushed past the ballot box and found the street to be the best way to contest the state and make their case, not just to their fellow compatriots and citizens, but to the world that they seek wholesale political change – not evolution, not musical chairs at the top, not another fig leaf, not putting lipstick on a pig,” said Taleblu. Large-scale protests against the regime’s legitimacy have occurred since 2017. The current iteration appears so far to have come the closest to achieving the regime change called for in recent years. The current round of protests is “the most important challenge to the regime’s legitimacy from the street in the past 46 years,” according to Taleblu. “It has all the hallmarks of what we’ve seen over the past years – wholesale political change being the goal, very tough anti-regime and national slogans being the goal. But also more importantly, it has a very broad demography and very broad geography.” One of the unique features of the current protest is the calls for the return of the shah and the dynasty that ruled Iran prior to the theocratic dictatorship that took over in 1979. It remains unclear how widespread that support is and whether the Pahlavi dynasty — the line continued in exile by Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi — can be viewed as a realistic option to replace the clerics who lead the Iranian regime. Pahlavi himself has said that he could serve as a bridge between the clerical regime and a new democratic or republican Iran. Pahlavi’s self-perception is also shared by many protesters, who see the exiled prince as a potential stabilizing force between the fall of one regime and the rise of another, more popular one, according to Taleblu. “The most important question is not if-and-when the regime falls, but how the regime falls, what role the West plays, what role Washington plays, what kind of linkage there is between external opposition and internal opposition? These are all important factors because how the regime falls will tell you if there’s evolution, if there’s devolution, or if there is revolution. And this is something that we cannot be indifferent to,” said Taleblu. If the rule of the ayatollahs in Iran crumbles, the new regime could be democratic, which would be in the best interests of the United States and the Iranian people, Taleblu said. The shape of the new regime is, in large part, dependent on the extent of support the protesters receive from outside the country. With minimal external support, the country is likely to be ruled by the military, which currently answers to the clerics.