Fox News98%
NEW: China-backed 'shadow fleet' helping Iran skirt US oil sanctions 76%
5/29/2026, 11:15:29 AM
BS Summary: This video contains 37 faulty reasoning types, including Framing Effect, Hasty Generalization, and Appeal to Authority, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 13.4% saturation with 112 hits. Analysis detected 1,111 faulty-reasoning hits from 834 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 68.4% and a BS Rank of 76% (4,872 of 20,247 videos). This video is worse (more manipulative) than 75.90% of the video peer group.
US and Iranian negotiators reaching an
agreement on a 60-day ceasefire
extension pending President Trump's
final approval. But even as diplomacy
moves forward, a high seas black market
is keeping Iran afloat despite economic
and military pressure. Hundreds of
tankers known as the Shadow Fleet
continue helping Iran move billions of
dollars in oil through covert shipto-
ship transfers largely into China and
largely beyond the reach of US
sanctions.
>> Nearly 1.5 million oil barrels travels
through the network from Iran to China
and the fleet is secretly transporting
between other countries like Russia and
Venezuela.
The Trump administration is
trying to crack down on the shadow
fleet, but some experts remain skeptical
about how quickly the trade can be
stopped. Joining us now to discuss this
is former deputy national security
adviser and Heritage Foundation vice
president of national security, Victoria
Coats.
Victoria, thank you so much for
joining us. This according to uh a
really interesting Wall Street Journal
report that came out yesterday. How much
of a boom is this to the Iranian economy
and how can the United States prevent
this shadow fleet from, you know, going
around our sanctions?
>> Well, good morning, Carly. Good to be
with you. I mean, this is a really
important report. And what's also
important, though, is that the Treasury
Department is getting after it. You
know, we have new sanctions that have
been announced under our rewards for
justice program. Uh, Treasury is
offering $15 million to anyone who gives
them more information on this so we can
disrupt it. And right now, $15 million
is a lot of money in Iran. So, I bet
they're going to get some tipsters,
especially with the internet starting to
open up, you know, calling them and
telling them how to get after these
ships. Also important that this network
seems to be running through Hong Kong.
So, this is a Chineseup supported uh
network. This is where where China's
continuing to try to access its uh you
know it its lowpriced oil out of Iran.
And clearly President Trump is signaling
he's not going to let that happen. That
said, despite what you just said about
sanctions, one expert is telling the
Wall Street Journal that disrupting this
shadow fleet would require sustained
military and economic pressure far
beyond traditional sanctions, arguing,
quote, "To truly reign in the fleet,
though, the US would likely need to
maintain a warlike footing against the
ships indefinitely, keeping its blockade
on Iranian ports, using military assets
to intercept shadow fleet ships, and
intensifying pressure on China an
experts expert adding even if the
straight of Hormuz doesn't reopen Iran
will likely be receiving money for its
oil on the water until October. So
Victoria to me that begs the question do
we have the capacity to do that? We've
done tons of stories where we don't do
not have the number of Navy vessels that
we used to. We're trying to build more
but we don't have that capacity right
now. And many of what we do have are
active in the Gulf. So, can we
reposition these closer to China to do
what that expert says?
>> No, I think we can. And you make a
really important point there, Todd,
which is that we do have to get after
rebuilding our Navy. That's why the
president's $ 1.5 trillion historic uh
request for a Department of War budget
is so important, and we will increase
that capacity. But for the time being,
you know, we have a just hugely superior
navy to the Iranian Navy, which is, as
the president says, at the bottom of the
ocean. Uh, you know, let alone the
Chinese Navy, which is nowhere near the
Gulf. They don't have that ability to
project power. So, if we want to do
this, if we want to get after these
ships, which are old, they're not
properly maintained, and they're
certainly not properly insured or
flagged, you know, we can certainly do
that. But bear in mind, you know, even
if the Iranians continue to export,
which is in the grand scheme of things,
a fairly small amount of oil, the rest
of their economy is so thoroughly
undermined and and and just weakened and
and it just this isn't going to save
them is the point. They have to uh they
have to get sanctions relief from the
United States, which means they have to
agree to the points that the president
has demanded from them. And I think
that's what's going to come out of this
this 60-day uh negotiation period.
>> Yeah, it's a great point as all of this
still remains deeply in flux. Victoria
Coats, thank you so much for joining us
this morning.
Be sure to like and subscribe for all
the Fox News latest on YouTube and catch
full shows streaming now on Fox
Speakers
1speaker8.9%attributed speech760writer words
Voice mapSelect a segment to jump to its words
Selected voice
70%flagged-word coverageVictoria Coats
74 attributed words100% of attributed speech83% writer coverage
Attribution is sentence-level. Pattern percentages are calculated only from words assigned to that voice.
Loading…
Loading…
Loading…
Loading…
Loading…
Loading…
Analysis
Hover over highlighted words in the article to view the associated bias or fallacy analysis.