Iran war success gives president a Trump card to play in China meeting
When President Donald Trump arrives in Beijing later this March for his summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the official agenda will read like every other U.S.–China meeting in recent memory: tariffs, trade balances, supply chains, Taiwan.
The real story walking through the door with him will be Iran.
On Feb. 28, the United States and Israel launched Operation Epic Fury, a sweeping joint campaign targeting Iran’s military, nuclear and command infrastructure. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in the opening strikes — a seismic blow to a regime that had terrorized the region for nearly five decades. Within days, his son Mojtaba was elevated as successor, a dynastic transfer inside a theocracy that once claimed to reject hereditary rule.
The war grinds on — and its consequences are landing on Beijing harder than Xi Jinping ever planned.
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Russia and China: not bystanders
Both Moscow and Beijing are actively helping Iran fight this war. That needs to be said plainly, because the administration’s public messaging has been too cautious on this point.
Multiple U.S. officials have confirmed that Russia has been sharing satellite and targeting intelligence with Tehran — including the locations of American warships and aircraft across the Middle East. That information has a cost. Seven U.S. service members have now been killed in Iranian attacks. Iran’s own ISR capability has been largely degraded by our strikes. The precision of the missile and drone attacks that have gotten through owes something to Moscow’s overhead constellation.
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Retired four-star Gen. David Petraeus told Fox News that Russian intelligence support likely explains “some of the accuracy of the missiles and drone strikes.” He called on Trump to push South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham’s Russia sanctions legislation, which has more than 90 senators behind it. Iran’s own foreign minister did not deny the arrangement, telling NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the Iran-Russia military partnership “is still there and will continue.”
An adversary coalition actively helping kill American troops deserves discussion at the table in Beijing.
China’s role is less direct, but no less consequential.
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For years, U.S. officials have warned that Chinese firms have funneled technology into Iran’s missile and weapons programs. The Treasury Department has sanctioned Chinese companies repeatedly for supplying missile-related materials to Tehran.
Analysts have also flagged Iran’s interest in the Chinese CM-302 supersonic anti-ship cruise missile — a weapon designed to threaten major naval vessels — which has surfaced in Iranian procurement discussions. Chinese technology already runs through portions of Iran’s missile infrastructure, from electronics to propellant components.
Denial and innocence are not the same thing.
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China’s energy vulnerability
For all of Beijing’s public posturing, the Iran war is costing China real money — and Xi knows it.
China built its manufacturing economy on reliable access to cheap energy, including deeply discounted crude from sanctioned states. Iran has been a critical piece of that equation. According to data from Kpler analytics and other tracking firms, China was importing approximately 1.38 million barrels per day of Iranian crude in 2025 — roughly 13% of its total seaborne oil imports, with nearly all of it routed through shadowy intermediaries to evade U.S. sanctions.
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That flow now runs directly through a war zone. The Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly 20% of the world’s seaborne oil passes, sits at the center of the conflict. As of this writing, the strait is effectively closed to tanker traffic. For Beijing, that means rising energy costs, supply chain disruption and the loss of one of its most important discounted suppliers — all at once.
The shadow fleet is being dismantled
Compounding the pressure on Beijing is Washington’s intensifying crackdown on the “shadow fleet” — the network of obscurely flagged tankers used to move sanctioned Iranian and Russian crude into Chinese refineries. The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control has sanctioned dozens of shipping companies, vessels and intermediaries tied to Iranian oil smuggling. Much of that crude terminates in China.
The war grinds on — and its consequences are landing on Beijing harder than Xi Jinping ever planned.
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If sanctions enforcement continues tightening — and there is every reason to press harder right now — the gray market that has allowed Beijing to secure cheap energy from sanctioned regimes will shrink. The bill for China’s energy dependency will come due.
Xi’s bind
Xi publicly condemns the war. Privately, Chinese energy firms have been pressing Tehran not to strike Qatari liquid natural gas (LNG) facilities — because China sources roughly 28% of its LNG from Qatar. Defending Iran on the world stage while quietly begging it not to torch your fuel supply is not a position of strength.
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Xi cannot replace discounted Iranian oil overnight. He cannot rehabilitate a dead supreme leader. And he cannot absorb a prolonged energy shock while his GDP growth target sits at a humbling 4.5% — China’s lowest target in over three decades. Every one of those pressures is leverage Trump should use. This is not the time for diplomatic niceties.
What Trump should demand
The Beijing summit is not a trade negotiation. It is a strategic confrontation, and Trump should walk in knowing exactly what he wants.
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First, Xi must use his documented leverage over Moscow to halt Russian intelligence support for Iranian attacks on American forces. Gen. Petraeus is right that sanctions on Russia are long overdue. But China’s economic exposure to this war gives Washington a second lever — and Trump should pull it simultaneously.
Second, China must shut down the missile technology pipeline to Tehran. Treasury Secretary Bessent is already weighing pressing Beijing on sanctioned oil purchases in his pre-summit talks with Vice Premier He Lifeng in Paris. That pressure must extend explicitly to weapons transfers — the CM-302 deal, propellant shipments, dual-use components. Washington is tracking all of it.
Third, Beijing’s rare earth export restrictions — imposed in retaliation for U.S. tariffs and designed to complicate American weapons replenishment — need to be called what they are: economic warfare. The tightening energy markets created by this conflict give Washington leverage it has not held in years. Expanded U.S. LNG exports and Gulf energy cooperation are available — but only for real concessions, not diplomatic theater.
For years, U.S. officials have warned that Chinese firms have funneled technology into Iran’s missile and weapons programs.
The real question in Beijing
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For years, Beijing methodically cultivated an authoritarian axis with Iran, Russia and Venezuela as a hedge against American power. Iran is now destabilized. Venezuela is out of Beijing’s orbit. Russia is exposed. The axis that gathered in Beijing last September brimming with confidence looks considerably more fragile today.
Xi will arrive at this summit hoping to stabilize the relationship and project strength on his own soil. Trump should arrive knowing that the Iran war has handed Washington something genuinely rare in the long history of U.S.–China diplomacy.
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Leverage.
The card is in Washington’s hand. The question is whether Trump plays it.
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American flag raised, flies over US Embassy building in Venezuela for first time in 7 years
The American flag flew again over the U.S. Embassy in Venezuela Saturday for the first time in the South American country in seven years.
The embassy compound in Caracas is still undergoing renovations, and officials have not announced when the building will fully reopen, The Associated Press reported.
The flag’s return comes months after former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was captured by U.S. forces in January.
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The U.S. Embassy highlighted the moment in a social media post, calling it the start of a new chapter in relations between Washington and Caracas.
“A new era for U.S.-Venezuela relations has begun,” the U.S. Embassy wrote on X.
Some residents expressed hope that the flag signals improved ties with the international community.
Caracas resident Alessandro Di Benedetto said the atmosphere among onlookers was optimistic, according to The Associated Press.
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“I found several people here surprised and happy because today they raised the U.S. flag at the embassy,” he said. “This is positive; this is another step.”
The embassy had been closed since March 12, 2019, when the U.S. and Venezuela cut diplomatic relations, according to the website for the U.S. Department of State.
Maduro was captured during a U.S. military operation in Caracas Jan. 3 and flown to New York, where he is being held in a federal jail.
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He faces multiple charges, including narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices and conspiracy to possess those weapons.
Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores, is also facing federal charges related to drug trafficking and weapons offenses.
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Both pleaded not guilty during a federal court appearance in New York Jan. 5.
Cuban activist to Trump: ‘Make Cuba great again’ by ending communist rule
As Cuba faces rolling blackouts, food shortages and renewed protests, Cuban human rights activist Rosa María Payá is warning in an interview to Fox News Digital that the island’s deepening crisis cannot be solved with economic reforms alone and is urging the United States to maintain pressure on the communist government in Havana.
The recent outages and shortages are tied to Cuba’s worsening energy and economic crisis.
A recent nationwide blackout was triggered by a failure at the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant, the island’s largest power station, cutting electricity across much of the country, according to Reuters. The crisis has been compounded by fuel shortages after the Trump administration moved to curtail oil shipments to the island, particularly from Venezuela — one of Cuba’s main suppliers.
Cuban officials say U.S. sanctions have worsened the country’s economic difficulties, while repeated power plant failures and an aging electrical grid have left millions facing prolonged blackouts that have fueled growing public frustration and protests.
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The state-run company blamed U.S. sanctions in an official statement, saying, “Without ending the financial blockade, there can be no permanent energy stability,” according to CubaHeadlines.
The Trump administration has increased pressure on Cuba in recent months, tightening sanctions and targeting oil shipments that help power the island’s energy system. The measures are part of a broader effort to weaken the Cuban government and support democratic change on the island.
“To President Trump, it’s important for you to know that the Cuban people are grateful for what this administration is doing and that we are ready, and we want to make Cuba great again,” Payá said, addressing him directly. “And that means an end to the communist dictatorship, not just a new economy, but a new republic.”
Her appeal comes as Cuba has re-emerged in Washington’s foreign policy discussions. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants and one of the most prominent Cuban–American voices in U.S. politics, long has advocated a tougher stance toward Havana and stronger support for pro-democracy movements on the island.
The Trump administration has recently increased pressure on the Cuban government, including measures targeting oil shipments that help sustain the island’s struggling energy sector.
Trump praised Rubio during a press conference Tuesday and suggested he could play a central role in any potential negotiations with Havana.
“Marco Rubio is doing a great job,” Trump said. “I think he’s going to go down as the greatest secretary of state in history. They trust Marco.”
A White House official told Fox News Digital Tuesday that, “The United States supports the Cuban people’s pursuit of democracy, prosperity, and fundamental freedoms. The United States calls on the Cuban regime to end its repression, release all unjustly detained political prisoners, and respect the rights and freedoms of all Cuban people.”
“We want to work with President Trump and with Secretary Rubio, the opposition is united,” Payá said. “We have a plan. It’s called the Freedom Accord,” she added, referring to a democratic transition framework promoted by opposition groups in Cuba. “We are ready to lead this process. The moment is now, Mr. President.”
Opposition groups have developed the Freedom Accord, a political roadmap for democratic change, which she says would guide a transition away from the current system in Cuba.
Payá, 37, who escaped the country 13 years ago, has spent the past decade advocating internationally for democratic change in Cuba.
She is the daughter of prominent dissident Oswaldo Payá, founder of the Christian Liberation Movement and architect of the Varela Project, a petition campaign in the early 2000s that gathered more than 25,000 signatures demanding free elections and civil liberties in Cuba.
Her father died in 2012 alongside fellow activist Harold Cepero in what Payá describes as an assassination by the Cuban regime. Cuban authorities said the men were killed in a car crash in eastern Cuba, but the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights later concluded there were “serious indications” that Cuban state agents were involved in the deaths.
“After the Cuban regime assassinated my father … I have been trying to follow his legacy together with many, many other Cubans on the island and in exile that today believe that we have a real chance and freedom,” she said, describing a movement that today includes activists both on the island and in exile.
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The crisis inside Cuba has reached a level where basic survival has become a daily struggle for many families, according to Payá.
“The situation today is that mothers don’t know if they are going to be able to feed their child tonight,” she said. “Most of the island has been suffering blackouts that last for days on many occasions.”The island has experienced waves of unrest in recent years driven by economic collapse and political repression.
The largest demonstrations against the regime erupted on July 11, 2021, when thousands of Cubans took to the streets across the island chanting “freedom” in the biggest protests since the 1959 revolution.
Authorities responded with mass arrests and prison sentences for many demonstrators.
For Payá, those protests reflected something deeper than economic frustration.
“The Cuban people have been fighting for freedom for the last 67 years,” she said. “We are demanding political freedom, not just a new economy.”
Despite comparisons between Cuba’s crisis and the political turmoil in Venezuela, Payá argues the situation in Cuba is fundamentally different.
“Cuba’s situation is quite different,” she said. “This is the longest running communist dictatorship in the Western hemisphere.”
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While she emphasized that Cubans themselves must ultimately drive political change, Payá said international pressure remains essential because of the regime’s ability to repress dissent.
Her appeal comes as Cuba has re-emerged in Washington’s foreign policy discussions.
Payá said the Cuban opposition hopes the United States will continue supporting democratic change on the island.
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“I believe that President Trump knows very well, better than anyone, the difference between a real deal and a better one,” she said. “He understands that this dictatorship must end.”
“To end the crisis,” she added, “we need to end the regime.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House and Rubio for comment and has not yet received a reply.
US conducts strike on another boat carrying suspected narco-traffickers, killing 6 people
The Pentagon on Sunday announced that U.S. forces have carried out a lethal strike on a vessel allegedly carrying suspected narco-traffickers in the Eastern Pacific, killing six people on board.
The U.S. Southern Command said it conducted “a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations” at the direction of the new leader of the Southern Command, Gen. Francis L. Donovan of the Marine Corps, who took over in January.
“Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations,” the Southern Command said in a press release.
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Six men on the ship were killed, but no U.S. forces died in the attack on the vessel, according to the Southern Command.
The latest strike brings the death toll in the Trump administration’s attacks on ships carrying people it accuses of drug smuggling to at least 156, according to The New York Times.
This was the 45th strike since the U.S. began targeting boats in the Caribbean and the Eastern Pacific in early September and comes amid a recent increase in the pace of strikes, the newspaper reported.
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The attack on Sunday was one of the deadliest boat strikes the military has conducted in recent weeks.
“Going on offense with Operation Southern Spear has restored deterrence against the narco-terrorist cartels that profited from poisoning Americans,” Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said last week. “Last month, we went a few weeks without targeting a single boat. Why? Well, because we couldn’t find a whole lot of boats to sink, and that’s the whole point is to establish deterrence from narco-terrorists who have been able to traffic almost unfettered.”
The Pentagon has refused to release the identities of those killed in the strikes since last fall or provide evidence of drugs on board.
The administration has been scrutinized in recent months over the strikes, including by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who has raised concerns about killing people without due process and the possibility of killing innocent people.
“I look at my colleagues who say they’re pro-life, and they value God’s inspiration in life, but they don’t give a s‑‑- about these people in the boats,” Paul said in January. “Are they terrible people in the boats? I don’t know. They’re probably poor people in Venezuela and Colombia.”
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The senator previously cited Coast Guard statistics that show a significant percentage of boats boarded on suspicion of drug trafficking are innocent.
Trump touts US has ‘tremendous’ amount of Venezuelan oil, vows to ‘take care’ of Cuba after Iran focus
President Donald Trump declared Saturday that the U.S. is “taking out tremendous amounts of oil” from Venezuela while vowing to “take care” of Cuba’s regime following America’s focus on Iran.
The president, speaking at the Shield of the Americas Summit in Florida, prefaced his remarks by saying that since the January operation to capture former Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, the administration has “been working closely with the new president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodriguez,” and, “she’s doing a great job working with us.”
“And we’re taking out tremendous amounts of oil. They’re making more money now than they’ve ever made, ever made. We have the big oil companies in. They are making more money, we’re getting some,” Trump said. “They’re getting a lot. They’re making more money now than they’ve ever made in the history of their country.”
“And I’m pleased to say that this week we have formally recognized the Venezuelan government. We’ve actually legally recognized them. We have also just reached a historic gold deal that’s called the gold deal with Venezuela, to allow our two countries to work together to facilitate the sale of Venezuelan gold and other minerals,” Trump continued, describing a license issued by the Treasury Department Friday that prohibits people and companies from Iran, North Korea, Russia and Cuba from doing business with Minerven — Venezuela’s state-owned gold mining company — among other measures.
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“As we achieve a historic transformation in Venezuela, we’re also looking forward to the great change that will soon be coming to Cuba. Cuba’s at the end of the line,” Trump also said. “They’re very much at the end of the line. They have no money, they have no oil. They have a bad philosophy. They have a bad regime that’s been bad for a long time. And they used to get the money from Venezuela. They get the oil from Venezuela, but they don’t have any money from Venezuela. They don’t have any oil,” Trump added.
Trump in January had declared a national emergency via an executive order over Cuba, accusing the communist regime of aligning with hostile foreign powers and terrorist groups while moving to punish countries that supply the island nation with oil.
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Trump said Saturday that Cuba is “negotiating with [Secretary of State] Marco [Rubio] and myself and some others. And I would think a deal would be made very easily with Cuba.”
“But Cuba is in its last moments of life as it was. It’ll have a great new life, but it’s in its last moments of life, the way it is,” the president added.
The State Department described the Shield of the Americas Summit in Doral as a gathering of the “strongest likeminded allies in our hemisphere to promote freedom, security, and prosperity in our region.”
Trump said America’s “focus right now is on Iran,” but “many of you have come today, and they say, ‘I hope you can take care of Cuba because you’ve had problems with Cuba, right? You mentioned.”
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“I was surprised, but four of you said, actually, ‘Could you do us a favor? Take care of Cuba.’ I’ll take care of it, okay?” Trump said, garnering applause.
NPR reporter stunned by Venezuela visit, locals say ‘a weight has been lifted’ after Maduro’s removal
NPR correspondent Eyder Peralta was amazed during a segment Friday by his recent trip to Venezuela following President Donald Trump‘s arrest of the country’s president Nicolás Maduro.
“It is absolutely surreal because you land at the airport and the signs are in Spanish, Russian, Arabic and Chinese, which tells you just where this country was facing a few months ago,” Peralta told host Steve Inskeep. “And then you go out on the streets and people here tell you that they feel like a weight has been lifted.”
He continued, “For the first time in a long time, there are street protests. Opposition groups are holding public meetings. I was at the justice department building yesterday, and there was a group of protesters calling for all political prisoners to be released.”
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Peralta recalled his encounter with Edward Ocariz, a former political prisoner who Peralta said had “faced the wrath of this government.”
“But then, right there in public, he taunted the government. They call us traitors, he said, but look at them now,” Peralta said. “‘Now it’s them who are not only kneeling,’ he’s saying, ‘but sleeping with the United States.’ And to be clear, he thinks the U.S. intervention was regrettable, but he also thinks that something good came out of it, and that allows him to say this in public without being thrown back in prison.”
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The NPR reporter went on to say he observed “lots of smiles” during Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s visit, who was brokering a deal with the interim Venezuelan government, eyeing minerals that the U.S. once depended on China for.
“And those are the minerals in your laptop, for example, and he says Venezuela likely has those minerals,” Peralta said. “American companies would like to extract them, and Venezuela could suddenly become key in helping the U.S. break reliance on China — a win-win, he called it. And yesterday, Trump said, quote, ‘Venezuela is working.’ Once again, he was framing it as the model for regime change.”
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The Trump administration shocked the world in January when it extracted Maduro and his wife in an overnight operation in order to bring them to justice in the U.S. for criminal charges filed against them in 2020.
The State Department announced Thursday the U.S. is reestablishing “diplomatic and consular relations” with the interim Venezuelan government.
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US restores diplomatic relations with Venezuela amid push for democratic transition
The United States and Venezuela’s interim authorities have agreed to reestablish diplomatic and consular relations, according to a State Department media note issued Thursday.
“The United States and Venezuela’s interim authorities have agreed to reestablish diplomatic and consular relations,” the State Department said in a statement released March 5.
The State Department said the agreement is intended to “facilitate our joint efforts to promote stability, support economic recovery and advance political reconciliation in Venezuela.
“Our engagement is focused on helping the Venezuelan people move forward through a phased process that creates the conditions for a peaceful transition to a democratically elected government.”
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The announcement confirms the restoration of diplomatic and consular relations between the two governments. The State Department did not specify when embassy operations or visa services may resume.
The statement also did not address potential sanctions changes, outline migration or security cooperation measures or provide additional details about diplomatic engagement moving forward.
The announcement comes after months of U.S. engagement in Venezuela.
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U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum traveled to Caracas March 4 and held meetings with Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodríguez during a two-day visit, U.S. and Venezuelan officials said.
Burgum discussed opportunities related to mining and critical minerals supply chains and said the Venezuelan interim government had offered security assurances for foreign mining companies seeking to invest in the country.
U.S. forces captured former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro Jan. 3 in Caracas. Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, pleaded not guilty two days later in federal court in New York to charges including narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy and weapons-related offenses.
Diplomatic and consular relations typically involve government-to-government engagement as well as the operation of embassies and consulates that facilitate visas, citizen services and diplomatic coordination.
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“The United States remains committed to supporting the Venezuelan people and working with partners across the region to advance stability and prosperity,” the statement said.
The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.