Guest essay by Eric Worrall

No word yet whether Hunter Biden will join the boards of any Iranian or Venezuelan oil companies.

Biden administration team in Venezuela as U.S. seeks to break country from Russian influence

BY ED O’KEEFE, FIN GÓMEZ

MARCH 6, 2022 / 11:06 AM / CBS NEWS

Washington — Senior American officials are in Venezuela this weekend to meet with the government of Nicolás Maduro, whose authoritarian rule of the oil-producing country has meant no formal diplomatic relations between the two countries since 2019.

The visit is yet another example of a geopolitical shift underway across the globe in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as the U.S. and European countries seek energy sources other than Russia, one of the world’s largest oil exporters.

Multiple U.S. officials confirmed the trip is happening to CBS News. The White House and State Department declined formal comment.

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“Joe Biden using #Russia as an excuse to do the deal they always wanted to do anyway with the #MaduroRegime,” Rubio tweeted Sunday morning. “Rather than produce more American oil he wants to replace the oil we buy from one murderous dictator with oil from another murderous dictator.”

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Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/venezuela-russia-ukraine-biden-team-nicolas-maduro/

An Iran deal might also be on the table. Although Iranian oil is not specifically mentioned in the following article, what else does Iran have which the USA needs? I think it is a safe assumption that increasing the global supply of oil will be part of any deal which softens Iranian sanctions, given Biden’s desperation to lower gasoline pump prices in the USA.

While America watches the war in Ukraine, Biden finalizes a dangerous Iran deal 

BY ERIC R. MANDEL, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR —  03/05/22 05:00 PM EST 1,394

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY CONTRIBUTORS ARE THEIR OWN AND NOT THE VIEW OF THE HILL

While the world’s attention is fixated on Russia’s war in Ukraine, President Biden’s Iran envoy in Vienna, Robert Malley, reportedly is readying to finalize a deal that makes a number of worrying concessions to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and his regime.

Gabriel Noronha, a former Senate Armed Services Committee aide to the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and former State Department official, has tweeted specifics of some American concessions to Iran. Noronha says his former State Department, National Security Council, and European Union colleagues were so alarmed about compromises the Biden administration appears to be making with Iran that they allowed him to publish details to alert Congress to how the pending agreement could undermine America’s national security interests. 

The agreement details are known to the governments of Russia, China and Iran, but evidently not to Congress, and certainly not to the American people. It’s possible that an agreement could be signed by early next week.

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Read more: https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/596950-while-america-watches-the-war-in-ukraine-biden-finalizes-a

Both of America’s new partners are notorious violators of human rights, and have BOTH been accused of terrorist connections.

The minister of industry and former vice president of Venezuela, Tareck El Aissami, has been accused by US authorities of money laundering, corruption and drug trafficking (e.g. 800kg Cocaine bust), and has also been accused of high level links to Hezbollah, an Iran backed Middle Eastern terror group, for whom he allegedly provided thousands of Venezuelan travel documents.

As for Iran, I hear they need lots of cash to restart their terrorist nuclear bomb programme peaceful Uranium enrichment programme, after Iran’s Uranium enrichment centrifuges were allegedly wrecked by an Israeli computer hack. Windfall profits from selling high priced oil to the Biden Administration should cover the cost of repairs.

President Biden’s excuse for buying oil from these nightmare regimes, rather than allowing more domestic US production, appears to be that he doesn’t want to encourage US dependency on fossil fuel.

In my opinion, Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine demonstrates that no good can come from making deals with the devil. If you give bad people an opportunity to make lots of money, they use that money to do bad things.