USA ups piracy to maintain dollar hegemony: Medhurst

USA has ramped up piracy and sabotage to prop up dollar hegemony, journalist Richard Medhurst’s latest YouTube video explained.

“We are witnessing the transition of the United States from an empire into a pirate state,”  Medhurst says, describing what he calls the birth of a new petrogas dollar.

The Syrian-born British journalist lists several of the US’s “criminalities” to illustrate his point.

Medhurst is not the only one trying to popularise the USA as a pirate empire.

The Empire of Piracy better pay attention to Mohsen Rezaee, the top military adviser to Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei and a former IRGC commander-in-chief:

“We will by no means give in on our 10 conditions in the negotiations through a naval blockade.”

“This is my personal… pic.twitter.com/wxcafczZPH

— Pepe Escobar (@RealPepeEscobar) April 16, 2026

Cradle’s journalist Pepe Escobar also calls the US “the Empire of Piracy.”

Escobar said that Iran’s top military adviser dismissed any talks of Trump becoming the policeman of the Strait of Hormuz.

The Iranian military says an announced naval blockade on vessels by the US in international waters would be illegal and amount to piracy, warning that no Gulf ports would be safe if its own were threatened https://t.co/cwf2FkAjqL pic.twitter.com/UA99a5j1rR

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) April 13, 2026

Iran has officially called the US’s move to blockade the Strait of Hormuz “piracy.”

South America and the Caribbean

Medhurst explains that under the guise of an anti-narcotics operation, the United States deployed a naval fleet to the Caribbean.

In South America, the kidnapping of President Maduro was “strategic.”

Medhurst says:

Half of Cuba’s energy grid was dependent on oil from Venezuela. Immediately after kidnapping Maduro and taking control of the oil, the United States cut Cuba off, plunging its power grid into darkness. This shows that capturing Venezuela’s oil wasn’t merely about corporate greed, but for strategic geopolitical purposes as a leverage, as a weapon to use for regime change [in Cuba]

Trump has said he could “do anything I want with it” when talking about Cuba.

Maduro’s capture, eight weeks before Trump declared war on Iran, cleared the way for Shell — and whoever said ‘it’s not about the oil’ … @ditalalmolloy reports.https://t.co/3MSFf8gPTS

— Canary (@TheCanaryUK) March 6, 2026

US oil giants like Chevron and UK oil giants like BP and Shell are crawling over Venezuela since the kidnapping of its head of state, as The Canary reported.

USA vs Russia

Medhurst demonstrates the USA and NATO attacks on the Russian fleet.

He said:

During the last months, the United States and their allies began systematically hunting down Russian oil and gas ships, not just in the North Atlantic, but across the entire planet. Particularly after the war in Iran began, we’ve seen an uptick in Russian tankers and LNG ships being blown up or pirated all the way from the Caribbean to the North Atlantic to the Mediterranean to the Black Sea, Baltic Sea

In a post on X, he said NATO’s hands were full with piracy.

Some people laugh at Europe and NATO for not helping in Hormuz, thinking they are cowards or unconvinced of the war.

Not at all.

They love piracy but have their hands full, attacking ships in the Russian sector of the blockade up North. And I’m not joking in the slightest.

— Richard Medhurst (@richimedhurst) April 13, 2026

The UK has been assisting the USA in its endeavours.

Earlier this year, British armed forces assisted US troops in seizing an oil tanker, which American officials accused of breaking sanctions by carrying oil for Venezuela, Russia and Iran.

 The UK’s Ministry of Defence said on January 7:

The UK has provided enabling support to the United States at their request to interdict the vessel Bella 1 today,

This ship, with a nefarious history, is part of a Russian-Iranian axis of sanctions evasion which is fuelling terrorism, conflict, and misery from the Middle East to Ukraine

More recently, in late March, the BBC reported that the UK is now “ready to act” to board and detain Russian shadow fleet ships in its waters under the UK’s Sanctions and Money Laundering Act 2018.

West Asia & Indian Ocean

The US oil company Chevron is one of the main corporate beneficiaries of the Western campaign of destruction in West Asia, Medhurst says.

After the US-backed regime change in Syria, Medhurst said Chevron “wasted no time in moving on to Syria’s oil and gas.”

He says that the Board of Peace was “railroaded” through the United Nations Security Council to provide the legal cover for Washington’s colonial plan, giving Chevron access to Gaza’s resources. To make this point, he cites the gas deal Israel recently signed with Chevron.

Israel’s approval of the $35B Chevron natural gas agreement with Egypt marks a major win for American business and regional cooperation. This deal not only strengthens energy security, but also supports broader efforts to stabilize and rebuild Gaza.

— U.S. State Dept – Near Eastern Affairs (@StateDept_NEA) December 18, 2025

The US State Department welcomed the deal, saying it would support “broader efforts to stabilize and rebuild Gaza.”

USA pressuring China

Medhurst argues that China is the ultimate target of this global energy piracy.

He says the US is crippling Venezuela, Russia and Iran, three of China’s top oil suppliers. The goal is to force Beijing to buy expensive American energy and prevent de-dollarisation.

China has repeatedly asserted Iran’s right to sovereignty as the US is trying to blockade the Strait of Hormuz, even though there is an alleged ceasefire till Monday!

Chinese FM Wang Yi held a phone conversation with Iranian FM Seyed Abbas Araghchi.

The current situation has reached a critical stage between war and peace, and a window for peace is opening. China supports maintaining the momentum of ceasefire and peace talks. Iran’s… pic.twitter.com/J9BPBmL5cz

— Lin Jian 林剑 (@SpoxCHN_LinJian) April 16, 2026

Sovereignty is the antithesis of the Western-led hegemonic order, because with sovereignty, how can you make a country crawl with Chevron and Shell?

Featured image via MiddleEastMonitor