Trump and the US' Imperialism in West Asia: Iraq to Export Kurdish Oil to Turkey

President Trump to Iraqi Leadership: "Pump oil, or face sanctions". Imperialism, Hegemony, and verbal claims to bring US Troops home from Syria.

President Trump has long sought to control both Iraqi and Syrian oil. With the latest threats of sanctions to Iraqi leadership, it appears his “maximum pressure” strategy on Iran will pay off, as reported by Reuters on February 22, 2025:

U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is piling pressure on Iraq to allow Kurdish oil exports to restart or face sanctions alongside Iran, eight sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

Iraqi official statements denied the threat of sanctions, publicly. Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar stated there was no communication from Iraq on resuming Kurdish oil productions.

Instant production

For having no communication between Iraq and Turkish officials, and no official end of the ongoing 2018 arbitration between , the announcement that “all measures complete” to restart Kurdistan oil production through Iraq and into Turkey happened almost instantaneously. On the very same day, the Iraqi Ministry of Oil announced oil exports from the Kurdistan region to Turkey were set to resume, and called upon Kurdish leadership to transfer required volumes of oil to the Iraqi state-owned oil company, as reported by The Cradle:

"The Federal Ministry of Oil confirms the completion of procedures to resume the export of oil produced in the Kurdistan region through the port of Ceyhan in accordance with the mechanisms set out in the budget law and its amendment and within the production ceiling specified for Iraq by OPEC," the statement said.

The ministry also requested that Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) authorities "deliver the quantities produced from the operating fields to the Oil Marketing Company (SOMO) to begin exporting oil through the Iraqi-Turkish pipeline and the port of Ceyhan in accordance with the term contracts signed with the nominated companies."

Kurdish oil exports through Iraq were halted in March 2023 due to the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) ruling the exports violated a 1973 Pipeline Agreement between Baghdad and Ankara governments.

This is just another example of the Trump administration’s callous regard for International order and relations.

Nothing new for Trump and the United States

The Kurdish region of Syria has been under US military occupation alongside the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) since 2015 when the United States intervened in the Syrian Civil War. Under the guise of “assisting the Kurds in fighting ISIS”, President Obama sent troops to the region. Once in office, President Trump was much more open about why the United States was leaving troops in Syria.

Video courtesy of The Grayzone.

President Trump certainly is not shy about the United States’ Imperialism. This may be shocking to some, but the policy was not something he installed. President Obama started the military occupation in Syria, Trump enforced the policy, and President Biden continued the policy. Biden even increased the amount of troops from “a small amount of troops” to quote Trump, to a much larger force of 2,000 troops. The Imperialism is completely bipartisan. This situation wholly exposes that Imperialism is nothing new for Trump or the United States.

The Troops…well…it’s confusing

Trump still has a base in the United States he needs to keep sated with verbal promises. One of his biggest promises, thus far, has been his bold statements to bring US troops home from abroad. Responsible Statecraft covered the apparent flip-flopping Trump has portrayed to the public regarding those in Syria. With Trump administration officials telling ally, Israel:

Earlier this week, Israeli official broadcasting channel Kan reported that “senior White House officials conveyed a message to their Israeli counterparts indicating that President Trump intends to pull thousands of US troops from Syria.”

However, domestically, he walked back the statement, in confusing Trump fashion:

Trump said Thursday that he did not know where that came from, however, he added, "we're not involved in Syria. Syria is in its own mess. They've got enough messes over there. They don't need us involved."

And when pushed to clarify he simply gave the usual one sentence statement to give his base enough of a straw to grasp at, and claim their man was fulfilling promises:

“I don’t know who said that, but we’ll make a determination on that."

The Foreign Policy rub

So why all the dramatics over Kurdish oil exports to Turkey? Well, first and foremost, Trump wants to posture the US as the top Imperialist and Hegemonic power in the world by bullying the US’ allies in West Asia. This is simply how Trump does business. And there is no secret of Trump’s desire of eliminating Iran from the International Oil Market, placing moderate fossil fuel pressure on China, and assisting its ally in West Asia — Israel.

1. As reported by Reuters on February 4, 2025, President Trump has restored his “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran.

   Trump's memo, among other things, orders the U.S. Treasury secretary to impose "maximum economic pressure" on Iran, including sanctions and enforcement mechanisms on those violating existing sanctions.

   The campaign’s stated goal is exert pressure on Iran to stop it from using oil export revenues to develop a Nuclear Weapons Program. Iran has denied wanting to develop such a program. Trump was able to drive Iran’s oil export revenue to “Near-Zero” in his first term using harsh economic sanctions. Iran brought in $53 billion in 2023, and $54 billion in 2022 with the loosening of sanctions under Biden.

   "With me, it's very simple: Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon," Trump said. Asked how close Tehran is to a weapon, Trump said: "They're too close."

   Not only does this appear to be a false flag against Iran, the only people hurt by these type of harsh economic sanctions end up being the citizens of Iran. This was reported when Biden loosened the sanctions previously levied by Trump.

2. The timing of the “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran comes as the Trade War with China has heated up. China is Iran’s largest purchaser of crude oil, clocking in at around 13% of China’s total imports. This number was already dramatically decreasing in December 2024, for several factors, including the Biden administration imposing harsh sanctions on select Iranian tankers shipping to China. This doesn’t appear to be a long-term problem for China, as the country has aggressively pursued the EV (Electric Vehicle) Market to be the future for vehicles — both in China and outside. The elimination of cheap Iranian oil to China does not give off the vibe this is going to hurt China in the near future or long term. The move instead appears to be solely aimed at Iran.

3. The Kurdish oil exporters were Israel’s top supplier in 2015, 2018, 2022, and until termination of the Turkey-Kurdish agreement in March of 2023. With the new deal in place, Israel will now have the country’s primary supplier (and cheapest supplier) of crude oil back online. Israel’s economy has taken a deep dive throughout the past 16 month aggression on Gaza and the West Bank. Obviously, with their primary supplier of fossil fuels back online, the economy (and military) will feel very alleviated. This is beneficial for Trump and the United States for varying reasons. For Trump, this keeps his campaign promises for Israeli-backed donors in tact by alleviating financial burdens. For the United States, their West Asian battleship can now have a much smoother economic recovery from the effects felt over the last 16 months.

4. I will mention the tense relationship between Iran and Iraq. Per Foreign Policy Research Institute:

   Iraq has not yet developed a significant gas industry, and wastes about 50 percent of its gas at wellhead by flaring, which also contributes to significant air pollution problems. Its current weakness in capturing gas makes it dependent on Iran for gas imports and electricity, especially in summer.

   The Kurdish oil exports through Iraq will likely force Iran to selling more of its own natural gas to Iraq, hurting Iran citizens who use the gas supply more in the summertime than other times of the year.

In the end, Trump, the United States, and Israel will all benefit in varying degrees by, once again, ignoring International orders and relations. Israel’s primary “threat” in the area will be hamstrung economically in attempts to sow discord within Iranian society. Trump and the United States maintain their economic, imperialist, and hegemonic prowess in the region, while controlling the flow of oil in West Asia. Trump is able to exert economic pressure, albeit likely mild, on China as well. The Kurdish-Turkey oil exports are just another example of the United States exerting their will as the regional and worldwide hegemony.

The concerns for United States citizens, and other civilians around the world are boiled down to — if Trump, the United States, and their allies are willing to sacrifice the well-being of entire nations (Iran, Syria, etc.) for their betterment, by continuously bypassing International order and relations abroad — how long until the outlandish imperialism “boomerangs” back onto their own populations? And for United States citizens, specifically, keep in mind all of these activities are Bipartisan, as stated above.

As for the 2,000 US troops stationed in Syria — only time will tell.