TEHRAN -- Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman on Friday delivered a blistering rebuke to President Donald Trump’s claim that the United States is seizing “spoils of war” from Iran, declaring that before anyone can divide the spoils of war, “you actually have to win the war.”
In a post on X, Esmaeil Baghaei responded to Trump’s recent comments that “to the victor belong the spoils” and that the U.S. is “taking a lot of oil from Venezuela—billions and billions of barrels of oil… And we’re doing the same in the Islamic Republic of Iran”.
“One cannot help but think of Joseph Heller’s Catch-22, in which Milo Minderbinder, an opportunist profiteer, turns war into a profit-making venture,” Baghaei wrote. 
“The Novel portrays an absurd world where ‘war’ and ‘profit-making’ become so deeply entangled that one can see folks are fighting for their own selfish financial interests rather than for their country.”
Baghaei said the U.S. president “appears to be lifting that same logic straight out of the world of fiction and place it at the heart of American foreign policy.”
“Regarding Iran, he says they’ll do the same as they allegedly did in Venezuela. There’s just one small problem, though,” Baghaei wrote. 
“Before you claim the ‘spoils of war’, you actually have to win the war—not get stuck in a strait, fall short of your stated (malign) objectives, run low on weapons, and lose credibility along the way.”
Baghaei’s comments come as multiple reports indicate the United States has significantly depleted its missile and interceptor stockpiles during six months of war with Iran. 
According to CNN, the U.S. military has drawn 

down nearly 80% of its critical THAAD missile interceptors and roughly half of its Patriot missiles. The Center for Strategic and International Studies estimated the U.S. held roughly 2,200 Patriot variants and 452 THAAD missiles before the conflict began.
The U.S. Army has also used “virtually all” of its surface-to-surface Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) and Precision Strike Missiles (PrSM) during the campaign, according to Reuters, citing multiple sources familiar with the matter. Nearly half of the U.S. Tomahawk stockpile has also been expended, CNN reported.
Replenishment remains slow, with the Pentagon receiving about 15 new Tomahawks and 20 new Patriot missiles per month, while analysts estimate it could take three years or more to restore THAAD stockpiles to pre-war levels.
“So far, the ‘spoils of Iran’ amount to nothing more than a paper trophy for a victory that shows no sign of materializing,” Baghaei said. “Milo at least knew how to make profit out of war; these people are busy dividing the spoils in front of the cameras before they’ve even laid hands on them.”
Separately, Iranian Parliament Speaker Muhammad Bagher Ghalibaf dismissed Washington’s recent maneuvers as empty “theatre diplomacy,” declaring that the United States’ strategy of threats, broken promises and fabricated narratives has failed.
In a post on X on Thursday evening, Ghalibaf pointed to the rapid shift from threats of a “massive attack” to sudden calls for negotiation, describing it as a recurring pattern of insincere diplomacy.
“’Massive attack coming… wait, never mind, they want to negotiate.’ That’s theater diplomacy on loop,” he wrote.
Ghalibaf stressed that reliance on bullying, unfulfilled commitments and fake news as tools of pressure constitutes a failed approach. 
He called on the other side to acknowledge established facts and honor previous ceasefire commitments rather than continue the cycle of empty threats and sudden reversals.
“Using bullying + broken promises + fake news as leverage is a failed strategy. Acknowledge the facts and fulfill your commitments. We don’t need more theater,” the speaker stated.