Trump family and Witkoff in talks with Iran over oil and precious metal mining commissions claims Iranian source
Members of the Trump family and Steve Witkoff, Trump’s negotiator in the Iran military standoff, are in private negotiations with elements of the Government of Iran to acquire access to Iranian oil and precious metals for their own benefit.
In a return for laying off on the American military threat to the country, the American negotiators would make a deal to receive a commission on oil purchases by US companies.
US negotiations with Iran over its capacity to build nuclear and conventional weapons and other threats they pose to US ally, Israel, appear to be in a stalemate.
The negotiation for the oil commissions is being made through American oil majors Chevron and Exxon.
‘Chevron and Exxon are talking to Iran right now through the good offices of Mr. Jared Kushner. And they’re [the Iranian leadership] is saying, OK, fine,’ said Kaveh Moussavi, an Iranian businessman and arbitrator linked to the Iranian opposition, based in the UK.
Members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp and security services sent a message to Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner inviting them to talks, said Moussavi.
Witkoff and Kushner were ahead of the game and agreed to speak to the IRGC, said Moussavi. The Americans told the IRGC, ‘You produce that much oil, why do you not give X amount of it to the companies that we select?’
Moussavi’s intelligence is based on information he has received from one of Iran’s leading inside officials, a so-called Godfather.
‘He said [to me], they are basically looking individually, personally, to make some commissions out of it. [The American companies’ need to get control over Iran’s production. Then there’s lithium and there’s also copper and there’s also other metals and things like that.’ Moussavi said.
Iranian oil is particular light and this makes it attractive to US companies as it would require minimal refinement. It is at the other end of the oil spectrum to Venezuelan output which is heavy and whose refinement is prohibitively costly. Acording to Worldometer, Iran holds the world’s third-largest proven crude oil reserves, estimated at 206.6 billion barrels. This is approximately 12% of the world’s total reserves.
According to the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies [FDD[, Iran holds significant, albeit debated, mineral resources, with 2023 reports claiming the discovery of 8.5 million tons of lithium in Hamedan province, potentially the world’s second-largest deposit. Iran is a major copper holder with roughly 4 billion tons in estimated reserves, ranking 9th globally.