Iran Threatens U.S. Over Oil Shipments To Venezuela
Last month, the Venezuelan president named Hezbollah-linked drug kingpin Tareck El Aissami as the country’s oil minister.
Iran has threatened the United States over its oil shipments to Venezuela.
In a letter written to the United Nations chief Antonio Guterres on Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif warned against “America’s movements in deploying its navy to the Caribbean.” Tehran believes that action will disrupt its oil supplies to the Latin American country.
Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi boasted of a “quick and decisive response” if Washington tried to stop oil trade between the two countries. The Iranian shipments are a clear violation of the U.S. sanctions place on both Iran and Venezuela.
President Donald Trump reinstated sanctions on the Iranian regime after he withdrew the U.S. from the Obama-era nuclear deal in May 2018. The following year, Washington imposed sweeping sanctions on Iran’s oil, shipping and banking sectors, cutting the most significant source of revenue for the Shia-Islamic regime, the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism.
Europe-based Radio Farda reported the latest Iranian threats:
Iran’s foreign minister on Sunday warned the US against deploying its navy in the Caribbean to disrupt Iranian fuel shipments to Venezuela.
In a letter to United Nations chief Antonio Guterres, Mohammad Javad Zarif warned against “America’s movements in deploying its navy to the Caribbean in order to intervene and create disruption in (the) transfer of Iran’s fuel to Venezuela.”
He said that any such action would be “illegal and a form of piracy,” according to a foreign ministry statement.
Zarif added that the US would be responsible for “the consequences of any illegal measure.” (…)
Elliot Abrams, the State Department’s Venezuela envoy, has alleged that Caracas is paying Iran in gold to restore its troubled oil sector.
The US has imposed unilateral sanctions aimed at ending oil exports by both Iran and Venezuela, both major crude producers.
Zarif’s deputy has summoned the Swiss ambassador, who represents Washington’s interests in Tehran, to communicate Iran’s “serious warning”.
The Trump administration also imposed sanctions on Venezuela’s socialist regime in January 2019, after President Nicolas Maduro refused to step down after repeatedly staging fraudulent elections. The Latin American nation possesses the world’s largest reserves of petroleum and natural gas, but 18-years of Socialist rule have wrecked the country’s oil sector and plunged its people into poverty. In March, the U.S. charged the Venezuelan dictators and his top associates with drug trafficking and posted a $15 million reward for his capture.
Since Hugo Chávez and his Socialist thugs came to power in 2002, they have sought deeper ties with the Mullah regime in Tehran. Maduro continued that policy after he took the reins of power following Chávez’s death seven years ago. This alliance has made the Latin American country a hub for Hezbollah, Iran’s leading foreign proxy terrorist group.
“We’re concerned that Maduro has extended safe harbor to a number of terrorist groups,” including “supporters and sympathizers of Hezbollah,” Nathan Sales, the coordinator for counterterrorism at the U.S. State Department, said in January.
The oil trade is at the center of this evil nexus between Iranian Islamists and Venezuelan Socialists. Last month, Maduro named Hezbollah-linked drug kingpin Tareck El Aissami as the country’s oil minister. Aissami is on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) “list of 10 most wanted fugitives,” the Associated Press confirmed.
The Iranian threats come at the time when the Shia Islamic regime is on the warpath with the United States. In January, Iranian leader Ayatollah Khamenei declared jihad on the U.S., a religious war that obliges all Muslims to take up arms. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has backed that call urging “all resistance fighters worldwide” to join the anti-American jihad. Iran-backed terror militia has stepped up their attacks on American and allied troops since a U.S. airstrike killed Qassem Soleimani, the chief of Iran’s elite Quds Force, regime’s international terrorist arm. Soleimani was personally responsible for the deaths of at least 600 American service members in Iraq, and was planning an attack on U.S. diplomatic mission at the time of the strike, official U.S. sources disclosed.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo: ‘Iran needs to be held accountable’
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Comments
Why does Iran ship oil to Venezuala. They have plenty of their own.
I believe that Venezuela’s crude is very heavy, and they don’t have refineries.
From the web: “Venezuela’s heavy crude is almost solid when it comes out of the ground, so it cannot flow through pipelines.
It needs chemicals, diluting agents such as naphtha, to turn into a lighter substance that can eventually be exported. Sanctions include a ban on US firms exporting these agents.“
“they don’t have refineries.”
Please correct me if I am wrong, but I thought Venezuela did have refineries but the socialist regime has allowed them to deteriorate.
They had refineries.
Now they have (bad, public) abstract art.
Iran isn’t shipping this to Venezuela on credit, they have none. I would think this is a huge cash transaction for Iran’s mullahs.
Hell, knowing both parties involved, this could even be a gigantic “cocaine for oil” deal.
This wasn’t a very good report, they used the word “fuel” in fact they are shipping 5 tankers full of refined Gasoline to Venezuela, which desperately needs the gasoline to mix with it’s heavy crude so that it can be pumped. Venezuela has destroyed it’s won infrastructure so completely that they can no longer manufacture gasoline on their own, in spite of the incredible amount of oil they have in the ground. They were getting shipments from the Texas Gulf Coast til Trump shut that traffic down.
Not specified what Venezuela is paying Iran for this, but they still have significant gold bullion stores, and presumably that’s what they giving to Iran.
It could never happen, but it would be wonderful to see the US torpedo those tankers out in the mid Atlantic.
Every time Iran runs their yap, destroy a hydroelectric facility. When they are all gone start taking out water reservoirs. Then start taking out their high tension grid.
Along the way, start destroying mosques.
They like terror, we should give Iran large doses of terror.
It would be a big mistake turning the general population against us directly. Continuing the sanctions while “taking care” of their leadership as opportunities arise would be more effective in the long run.
.
We need to stop Iran from continuing their terrorist actions, since Iran’s people either cannot or will not get rid of their bad apples, then we will have to do so. All I care about is stopping the rouge state, if we have to sacrifice Iranians, so be it.
I suspect that a fairly large percentage of Iranians have been brainwashed to the point that they are not salvageable, and that those will have to be put down.
These two regimes working together isn’t just Dumb & Dumber, it’s Evil & Eviler.
I leave it to you to decide which is Eviler.
Can’t tell from the article — is this something we’re actually doing (stopping oil tankers), or are the Iranians just making stuff up like usual?
Iran does not have an ocean going Navy. They can’t project power or escort their tankers. We can simply blockade. If the tanker continues we can disable by using a torpedo against the ships propellers. No spilled oil that way. Then tow the tanker to Aruba, off Laos the crude, refine it and donate to some needy country.
Wow. A Hezbollah-linked drug kingpin named oil minister of the country with the largest proven reserves in the world. El Chapo must be green with envy in his cell in Florence, Colorado.
A torpedo is not that accurate to just take out the props
US Navy torpedoes are wire guided as well as using sound for homing. They actually have the capability to home on the “chuga chuga” sound that propellers make. So yes they are that accurate.
Iran is worried that the US Navy which has been busy of late keeping shipping open in the gulf straights, around the horn of Africa, and the South China Sea, will be interdicting trade in the Carribean?
Meanwhile, Venezuala can’t interdict the occasional unarmed cruise ship.
Ok … * SHRUG *
That’s my laugh of the day – Iran threatening the U.S… Absolutely hilarious.
We get tetchy when China does something near their waters and “interferes”. They are a permanent (veto) member of the UN Security Council, IIRC.
Why is the US which is dying – literally and economically – from a pandemic worried about being the “Officer Kirk” policeman of the world (Happy Days reference).