America News Agency

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei criticized U.S. President Donald Trump's remarks about the oil resources of Iran and Venezuela, comparing Trump's rhetoric to the opportunistic character Milo Minderbinder from Joseph Heller's novel Catch-22.

Baqaei referred to Trump's remarks: "The winner takes the spoils. We're taking a lot of oil from Venezuela... We're doing the same thing with the Islamic Republic of Iran."

Baqaei argued that Trump's approach places a fictional mindset that intertwines war and profit at the center of U.S. foreign policy, saying, "The U.S. President appears to have taken this logic directly from fiction and placed it at the heart of American foreign policy."

Referring to Iran, Baqaei said: "He says they will do to Iran what they claim to have done in Venezuela. But there is one small problem: before claiming the 'spoils of war,' you first have to actually win the war—not get stuck in a narrow strait, fail to achieve your (malicious) objectives, run out of weapons, and lose your credibility along the way."

Baqaei added: "So far, the so-called 'spoils of Iran' amount to nothing more than a paper trophy prepared for a victory for which there is no sign of ever materializing."

Concluding his remarks, Baqaei again referred to Heller's fictional character: "At least Milo knew how to profit from war; these people are busy dividing the spoils in front of the cameras before they have even obtained them."