Donald Trump warned this Sunday that the United States "will leave" Iran "unless" Washington decides to "stay with the oil, like in Venezuela," explicitly equating his strategy in the Iranian conflict with the energy control model he has applied in the South American country following the capture of Nicolás Maduro.
According to the EFE report, the president made these statements to the media in Doonbeg, Ireland, where he was attending a golf tournament at his resort hotel, when asked about the meeting scheduled for this Monday between Iran, Oman, and several Gulf countries regarding the future of the Strait of Hormuz.
"In the end, we will exit (from Iran), unless we decide to stay and keep the oil, like in Venezuela. They don't talk about Venezuela anymore, do they? We received thousands and thousands and thousands of billions of dollars. We paid for the war many times over," Trump stated.
The president portrayed Venezuela as a success story under American influence: "It was a very sad country. And now people are very happy. The people of Venezuela are very happy. And they see what is happening. And by the way, thousands of jobs are being created. All the big companies that really couldn’t or didn’t want to go there are all there now."
After the capture of Maduro by U.S. forces on January 3, 2026, Washington effectively took control of the Venezuelan energy sector and supported Delcy Rodríguez as interim president. At the end of August, Trump announced what he referred to as the “largest oil agreement in history”, which involves 17 Venezuelan oil fields with approximately 65 billion barrels of proven reserves, a duration of 25 years, and a projected investment of over 100 billion dollars.
Regarding the possibility of elections in Venezuela, Trump was brief: they will occur "when they are ready," he said, without providing any deadlines or specific conditions.
Regarding the meeting on Monday between Iran and the Gulf countries, the president downplayed its outcome: "I don't care. That depends on them. That's fine. As long as Israel, along with the nations we are talking about, is happy."
The context of the statements is the war between the U.S. and Iran, which began on February 28, 2026, with a joint offensive with Israel. The conflict led to the closure or severe restriction of the Strait of Hormuz—through which one-fifth of the world's oil passed—and drove the price of Brent crude from about 67 to more than 126 dollars.
The Iranian Foreign Minister, Abás Araqchí, warned this Sunday that the agreement reached with Oman will not lead to the reopening of the strait as long as the U.S. does not resume its commitments under the peace memorandum signed in June.
On Saturday, Trump had already indicated that he expected the war with Iran to conclude after the U.S. congressional elections in November, suggesting that Washington is in no rush to resolve the conflict before those elections.
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