Former intelligence contractor, Tore Maras did a marathon livestream yesterday that was nearly 4 hours long, covering her most recent articles that you can read here.
I’ve cut down the first 70 minutes of the podcast to 25 minutes, where she gives her perspective on the war in Iran, starting with the raging “MAGA Civil War” from which I’ve been largely spared, due to being permanently de-platformed by the social media majors.
Tore says that the spectacular number of social media influencer crash-outs are mostly products of paid foreign propaganda; mainly Chinese, Turkish, Iranian and European. The debris field is wide and it appears to include Alex Jones, who went on The Jimmy Dore Show on Sunday to explain his irreconcilable break-up with Donald Trump.
She then discusses the importance of Kharg Island, which she describes as the “Core of the Petrodollar” and a strategic node that would determine how this entire confrontation ends.
Prior to this weekend, 90% of Iran’s oil exports were shipped from Kharg, so the US bombing campaign on the Island has cut off the Regime’s main source of income. She says the operation was supposed to take place after the Midterm elections but it got escalated. She says Israel had wanted to obliterate Kharg, which would have caused a global economic catastrophe by spiking oil prices upwards of $150 barrel.
As it stands, 90 military targets, including the runway, the naval base, the air defenses, the mines, the drones and other weapons stored there were vaporized but the petroleum infrastructure has been left unharmed.
Tore says the Iran war is really about the challenge to the Petrodollar that was mounted by China and Iran out of Kharg. She explains that what China and Iran built there was the first serious physical and financial infrastructure capable of sustaining an alternative to the Petrodollar, at scale.
The payments were denominated in yuan, cleared through CIPS, which is China’s alternative to SWIFT and processed through the Bank of Kunlun, thus completely evading US Treasury Sanctions. A dark fleet of sanctioned tankers were granted safe passage to China, while Western-flagged vessels were targeted.
For example, on March 7th, while bombs were dropping all over Iran, the sanctioned VLCC Nora loaded 2.1 million barrels of crude oil at Kharg Island and departed for Ningbo, China. Meanwhile, at least 17 commercial vessels have been attacked by Iran in the Strait since March 1st, while Lloyd’s of London reportedly cancelled insurance policies.
Tore says that if US forces stand at the terminal where those tankers dock, this alternative financial architecture will collapse at its source. As she says, “You can’t route oil through a yuan settlement system when Americans are standing at the dock.” US Marines are currently en route to Kharg to do just that.
She then describes “The China Trap”, the most elegant geostrategic move she’s ever seen, which she thinks will be studied in geopolitics courses for decades to come:
Trump has invited China to send warships to escort tankers through the Strait of Hormuz. If China accepts and sends their warships alongside American naval forces, they will thereby legitimize American control of the energy corridor. They will have acknowledged that the Strait requires American security to function and they will have abandoned their entire post-dollar energy architecture with that decision.
As she says, “You can’t simultaneously claim you’re building a yuan-denominated oil trading system and send your navy to escort tankers through an American-controlled checkpoint.”
If China refuses, they will have demonstrated to every Belt and Road partner nation in the region that when the energy checkpoints are contested, China can’t protect their supply chains and their entire claim to be a “reliable alternative to American dominance” will evaporate.
She says the Iran war has nothing to do with nuclear weapons, it a financial war dressed-up as a military war.
TRANSCRIPT
Tore Maras: If you remember in January, I had done a show, I had also on Truth Social stated to the President, “Under no circumstances do we allow Bibi to take Kharg Island, right? And because the timeline was moving up for that. And then, I did a show on the importance of it.
The reason I did that is Israel does want that positioning but it has to be bilateral. We can’t let the people that we’re using as a proxy play front field. And see that’s the thing that people don’t seem to understand: President Trump is not kneeling to Israel, right? Bibi’s an idiot. You know, the State of Israel.
I mean, Mossad was making my President look like a f@cking idiot with Kharg Island and they were not going to, I would not allow that to happen, at all.
So I was happy that the timing was done at the right time, OK? When the strike happened and how it happened. And obviously, the way the President struck the Island was the most important – but we’re not done yet. As you know, the airports, the more infrastructure area of it was all destroyed but the oil and the ability to export oil has not.
Because as I said, it is one of the most, it is the most important. It’s like the core heart of the Petrodollar and that’s something we don’t, even though we have Venezuela and we ordered Texas to start pumping, we don’t need to cause harm to other people around the world to do this.
So it’s really important for people to understand this: I am anti-Bibi. I am not anti-Semitic. I don’t hate Jews but I am a very practical person and when I see nations trying to use their positioning – just like I see with influencers – with proximity to my President and my nation, I will speak out.
And so, this is why I did an extensive show and as I said before, sometimes the messages and the shows that I put out are not just for the people. They’re intended for other ears to hear and see. So I wanted to kind of just restate that, in case, you know, I make mention of things and you’re like, “Why are you talking about that?” Well, it was important that I talk about it, because it wasn’t necessarily for you.
I think I’m one of the best national security advisors our President has, right now – unofficially. I’ve claimed myself. How about that? You like it? I gave myself the title without the salary or the brick-and-mortar job title, because he needs all the good people around him that he can get.
Now, the infighting that everyone’s talking about within the Trump administration is also smoke and mirrors and that’s more so done. It’s mostly foreign propaganda, Chinese propaganda, Turkish propaganda, Iranian propaganda, European propaganda mostly. So please dismiss anyone that is giving you hard lines of “He’s a traitor! President Trump left us!” and whatever.
That man has been by our side forever and he’s got amazing time travelers flanking him in all areas. So if we can tell the future, we obviously know.
Fun fact that was brought up to me by Angela: the Nephilim had six fingers. So weird. I thought I would just throw that fun fact out. I’m giving it a pause, because I want you to think about that for a hot minute.
So there are a lot of people that are former intelligence, former military. Former, former, former, right? And they say things and they say things that are contradictory to the truth and or create this ambiguity on where our President sits. And I have to say that people comment based on the information they have. Meaning, if I was to tell you, this is Red Bull, read the ingredients and that’s it.
But that’s not the full ingredient list and it’s bullsh¡t and you’re only getting a thing. I can say, “Well, you know what you’re saying isn’t really true. It’s half true, because you only got half the ingredients.” So please be a little bit more compassionate with people that try.
Oh, and once you’re CIA, you’re always CIA. You’re always working. Once a Fed, always a Fed. So always keep that in mind, too. Always keep that in mind.
I absolutely love the way my President highlights people that are getting their strings pulled or postured for spotlight. It’s the most incredible way to go. And I’m hoping people are doing their homework to do that, because it’s important, too.
Now, as I said today, we’re going to talk Iran. We’re going to talk war. We’re going to talk strategies.
Because I know you’re watching the headlines. You know, you’re watching the strikes and I know you’re watching the gas prices and the Senate floor speeches and the press briefings where nobody says anything definitive, right? I know you’re watching all of that.
And I need you to stop watching the surface and start watching what’s underneath it because what’s underneath it is what I’ve been trying to kind of articulate since January and today right now, right? It’s actually here, in full package.
So let me start with a question that nobody in the mainstream is asking. Not one single major outlet – not one. And I’ve been watching because this is what we do here.
And the question is this: what do you do? Well, what do you do with a fully operational oil terminal sitting on an island that you’ve just spent the night before demolishing? You destroyed the runway, you took out the naval base, you obliterated air defenses, you leveled the mine storage. 90 military targets in one of the most powerful bombing raids in the history of the Middle East. Trump’s words, not mine.
And you left the oil terminal, just like you heard him, standing completely untouched. Not a scratch. Why? And that question is the entire story. Everything else, the Senate votes, the approval ratings, the Hawk versus Wiles Faction fight, the Hagseth press briefings, the Iranian missiles landing in Turkey – all of it.
It’s noise around that one question. Why is the oil terminal sustaining? And what he said is, “Oh, we want to rebuild the country.” Listen to what he says.
Now I’m going to answer that for you today because he, our President, is not going to sit there and be like, “Here are my cards.” That’s not how you play poker. Right? And I’m going to do it the way I’ve been doing this work for a long time; by showing you not just what’s happening, but why it was always going to happen this way, because nothing could have stopped what was coming.
But here’s what you need to understand first. I called this in January, because I didn’t expect it to escalate. In the first quarter of this year, it was intended to happen around the third quarter, so we have elections and then happen, but the timeline escalated.
So January, before the bombs, before the word “Kharg” was on a single television screen in America, I sat here and told you that Kharg Island was a pressure point; the strategic node that would determine how this entire confrontation ended. I told you that striking Kharg wrong – striking it the way Israel wanted to strike it; fast and total and final – would be a catastrophic mistake.
I told you that the timing of the Kharg strike – and what you choose to preserve versus what you choose to destroy – is the difference between a masterstroke and a global economic catastrophe.
Now, the mainstream media is explaining what Kharg Island is this week, like it’s “breaking news”. Well, my audience knew for two months, and I’m not telling you that to pat myself on the back. I’m telling you that, because credibility and analysis is earned by what you say before events confirm you, not after, OK? Anyone can be right, after that. That’s called reading the news.
What we do here is read the architecture. I mean, I am an architect and a script writer, and today, that architecture is fully visible for the first time. So, I want to walk you through all of it. All of it, the complete picture, because today is the day you’re going to make it all connect, right?
So Kharg Island, that’s an island worth more alive than dead, right? So, in summary, what is Kharg Island? And, you know, just to summarize the show that I did, and not the headline version, it’s a 20 square kilometer piece of coral off the Iranian coast. It handles 90% of the entire crude oil exports of Iran. Not some of it, not most of it, 90%. No other major oil producer on Earth concentrates this much economic power in one location. And that strategy is kind of leveraged.
Saudi Arabia doesn’t do it, Russia doesn’t do it, Kuwait doesn’t do it, the UAE doesn’t do it. Iran, alone built its entire economic existence around one island, one runway and one set of loading piers and one terminal. Facts.
Now, if you destroy that terminal, if you actually blow it up, Iran loses oil, oil revenue, like instantly. It’s done. The Regime collapses economically within months, and that sounds like a victory, right? But like I said on my show a couple months ago, here’s why it’s not.
If you destroy that terminal, oil prices spike upwards toward 150 barrel, possibly will surpass that. The Gulf of Mexico – excuse me, the Gulf of America goes into economic shock. Your gas price at the pump, which is already at $3.63 and rising, goes to $6.87. Yeah, $6.87. It’s a very specific number, pay attention to that number.
In an election year with a Republican majority that’s already down on approval ratings, almost 30% because of the war, allegedly. That kind of number, by the way, is not wartime turbulence, people. That’s a Midterms catastrophe. That’s how you lose the House in November. That’s how you lose the Senate. That’s how everything this administration has built gets undone by the economics of a decision made in the Persian Gulf.
So, you don’t destroy Kharg. You seize it. You destroy the runway, so fighter jets can’t take off. You destroy the naval base, so patrol boats can’t sortie. And you destroy all that, because they’re housing all the Turkish and Chinese -slash-North Korean drones. That’s why you do it.
You destroy the air defenses, so your Marines aren’t flying into missile fire. You destroy the mine storage, so the approach routes are clear. You do exactly, exactly what military planners call “Pre-assault shaping operations”.
Now, I can tell you that the pre-assault shaping operations for this region started a long time ago. I remember when they started. There’s a lot of us that remember when they started. And it seemed like a pipe dream. But anyway, after you do all these pre-assault shaping operations, you take a boat and you throw in two and a half thousand war machines, Marines from Okinawa on an amphibious assault boat toward the Persian Gulf. And that’s what’s right now, today, as we’re talking.
A Marine expeditionary unit, that has two and a half to three thousand personnel was deployed to the region, as President Trump is reportedly weighing the possibility of seizing Kharg Island. With one official telling, “There are big risks. There are big rewards. The President isn’t there yet.” That’s what Axios said.
The President isn’t there yet. No, he’s not. But the Marines are. (Laughs) And this morning, this very morning, President Trump was on the phone with PBS News for like three minutes while attending what he described as a “very important meeting on the Iran war”.
And he said, “I told him openly, I’ll knock the Hell out of it.”
Not the oil terminal. That’s not what he was referring to. He was referring to resistance to American control of it. I repeat, the resistance to American control of it. There’s a difference. And that difference is everything. Because there’s a financial war underneath a military war.
I need you to zoom out, because the Iran war is not the actual story here. It’s the visible surface story. The story underneath it is about the global financial architecture that has governed the world economy for 80 years…
For 80 years, every barrel of oil sold anywhere on earth has been denominated in dollars. That system has a name. We all know it as the petrodollar. And every single transaction that flows through that system reinforces American financial supremacy automatically, continuously.
Whether the politicians arguing about it understand it or not. Whether the commentators screaming about the war understand it or not. And it’s that system that’s under attack. Not through military action, but through financial architecture.
Now, what Iran and China built together at Kharg Island – and I say this, they built it together, right – was not just an oil route. It was the first serious physical infrastructure capable of sustaining an alternative to the petrodollar at scale.
Real barrels, rail payments, clearing through CIPS, China’s alternative to SWIFT. It’s denominated in yuan. It’s processed through the Bank of Kunlun in a closed financial loop that American Treasury Sanctions can’t reach.
Carried by a dark fleet of sanctioned tankers operating outside Western oversight. It’s like a green corridor where tankers bound for Ningbo, China, were granted safe passage, while Western flag vessels were targeted.
And this is not a theory. This is operational. Moving real barrels in real time before the first American bomb fell on Tehran. The sanctioned VLCC Nora loaded approximately 2.1 million barrels of crude oil at Kharg Island on March 7th and departed for Ningbo, China, confirming that limited Iranian export flows continue, despite wider disruption and that the yuan oil pipeline is still running.
So I want you to let that sink in for a second. While war is happening, while the Strait is closed to Western tankers, a sanctioned Iranian tanker loads 2 million barrels at Kharg and sails to China. That’s the Green Corridor in operation.
That’s what is at stake at Kharg Island. If the United States physically controls the loading pier, if American forces stand at the terminal where those tankers dock, the alternative financial architecture collapses at its source. So you can’t route oil through a yuan settlement system when Americans are standing at the dock.
The experiment ends before it becomes irreversible. That’s the end game. That’s why the terminal is untouched. That is why the Marines are sailing. The China Trap. The most elegant move I’ve ever seen!
Now, I want to talk about something that I genuinely believe will be studied in the geopolitical strategy courses for decades, because this is a move. This is the one. Trump invited China – I repeat, China – to send warships to escort tankers through the Strait of Hormuz. Right? Think about that for a second.
President Trump invited China, China to come and escort tankers from the Strait of Hormuz – China. And you know what’s funny? Your freaking stupid fake-ass MAGA influencers, your media, your “Well-seasoned, look at me, I’m Mar-a-Lago and I talk to the President,” all said the same sh¡t: “It’s almost as if Trump is begging for help. It’s a sign of desperation, as evidence that America can’t handle this alone!”
They missed it, entirely. Think about what that invitation actually does to Beijing’s position: If China accepts; if they send warships to escort tankers through the Strait alongside American naval forces, they have just legitimized American control of the energy corridor. Simple.
“Sure, America will come. In other words, you’re legitimizing my presence, as the United States working that corridor.” American control of that energy corridor.
Now, they’ve acknowledged that the Strait requires American security to function. They’ve abandoned their entire post-dollar energy architecture in one decision: You can’t simultaneously claim you’re building a Yuan-denominated oil trading system and send your Navy to escort tankers through an American-controlled checkpoint. See? So that’s one.
If China refuses, if they say, “No, no, f@ck that! We’re not participating!” They’ve just told every Belt and Road partner nation in the region that when the energy checkpoints are contested, China’s not there. China can’t protect their supply chains. China’s entire claim to be a “reliable alternative to American dominance” evaporates in that refusal.
So, in other words, if China accepts, they legitimize US presence, monitoring the movement through the Strait of Hormuz. If they say no, all the people that have signed on to the Belt-Road are like, “Yo, so if you’re contesting the points, you’re going to sit there and tell us that we can trust you? So if you’re contesting? Oh, that’s not reliable. We don’t want to be a partner with you, China! How about that?”
So they’re stuck. They’re in a box, now. Any choice they make. They’re f@cked, OK?
So the issue here is, is that no one realizes that the war in Iran has had nothing to do with nuclear weapons. And I’ll tell you why. Years ago, I did a show telling you how uranium is enriched, how we know that it is in fact in the contract that Iran gets specific uranium.
It almost feels like Al Gore, you know, “We’re going to be underwater!” Because, for over 50 years, Iran’s making nuclear weapons. Like, I wouldn’t be surprised if the hieroglyphics in Egypt somewhere said “Iran’s 10 days away from creating nuclear weapons!” That’s how stupid it sounds.
And when I hear it, I’m like, “I know it’s the message that people understand, but what the f@ck? Can we just get off that ride, please?” Because it makes everyone – I know we meet people where they’re at, but that doesn’t mean we have to sound dumb, too. And sound like we’re going to go, “We were all going to melt! All the caps are going to melt! We’re all going to die. Oh, they’re one day away from making nuclear weapons! 10 days, one week! Oh, they only need seven days. Oh man, we got to do this now!”
And it’s like, hold on a second. How many years, now? I know for the whole existence of my whole 48 years on this planet, they’ve been saying the same-ass sh¡t, OK? Someone tell me I’m wrong. I’m waiting, here. Someone tell me I am wrong on this.
So it’s a financial war, OK? That’s it. And that comment from the Iranian official tells you that the military pressure is actually being used for fighting financial architecture. That’s it. That’s the proof. This is a financial war dressing up in like military clothes.
Now, another thing people aren’t looking at is Putin’s move. And no one is covering that either. Now, um, I need to tell you about something that should be generating from page outrage, but instead it’s being completely buried.
And I mentioned it on my last show and I mean completely, and I’ve looked, it’s not there. Well, every journalist in America is watching the Persian Gulf. Vladimir Putin just signed a 25 year lease on a Naval base on the Red Sea.
Right. Sudan proposed a 25 year deal with Russia for the Red Sea military base in exchange for advanced weaponry. And that allows Russia to deploy up to 300 service personnel and station and as many as four warships, including nuclear powered ones at port Sudan.
But you know, that’s not a problem. What do I know? Right. Port Sudan on the Red Sea directly on the corridor that connects the Persian Gulf to the Suez Canal to Europe.
Now, I want you to think about what that means on a map, right? Every tanker that leaves the Persian Gulf heading to Europe passes through the Red Sea. And now Russia has a Naval base on that corridor with caliber cruise missiles that can hit any target in the Red Sea without a warship ever leaving the harbor and an intelligence platform that can identify every commercial vessel in those waters and feed that targeting data to whoever they want. I mean, they wanted to, they could give it to the Houthis, right? Or whatever other entity they want to stir shit up with in the region, right? This is not a footnote in the Iran war.
This is the second theater of the same competition.
