The Trump Administration has been reacting angrily to Iran’s shipment of five tankers of gasoline to Venezuela throughout, talking up sanctions or other actions against them. This didn’t amount to much real action, however, as the tankers reached Venezuelan waters late Saturday.
There was talk of the US sending more ships to the Caribbean for a potential confrontation, and Venezuela alerted the UN of Friday of a “threat of imminent use of military force by the United States” against the tankers.
Heavy US sanctions have ground Venezuela’s refineries to a halt and caused shortages. The US has also tried to forbid Iran from selling oil and gas. The solution the two nations found was to deal with one another, and while this clearly was against US policy, there was little the US could really do about it.
Venezuela’s President Maduro thanked Iran for providing the gasoline in comments Sunday. Reportedly, Venezuela pays for the shipments in gold, which are flown back to Iran. The US has sanctioned a Chinese company for supporting that airline.
If they load up with gold going back, then expect the U.S .to make a move…
Yeah. Pirates love gold.
And neocons. Who as Edward Abbey said , are neither “new” nor “conservative”, but as old as Babylon and as evil as hell.
I think Iran would fly any gold home & not risk shipping it.
i don’t think iran is capable of making a decision that complex.
Iran rocks!
Oh, Maduro can pay in bars, not ores…
we will turn it into pebbles. billions of them.
Its great they made it. Black Eye to the US Navy
we let this one through. if they try it again thinking that they will succeed they have another think coming. we are already considering blocking the return to iran for those ships. sinking them would be too easy. let them just sit out on the open seas for a few weeks will discourage any trade with those despots.
Trump’s schoolyard bully routine is getting old. Someone needs to point out to that Zionist bastard that the US contains only 5% of the world’s population. We can’t shit on the other 95% and not expect severe repercussions.
Right now, Pompeo, Bolton and Trump blood’s are boiling….!
People need to calm down. These tankers had Russian subs escorting them.
The Koch Bros. refinery in E. TX, LA was built for heavy crude, they can’t refine the TX sweet. The heavy crude was to come from the Canadian shale. Russia began selling THEIR oil for rubles on 6.6.14 and that’s when the CIA began messing with the price of oil to punish those dastardly Rooskies. The left hand didn’t tell the right hand what they were doing, the price sank and the Canadian companies go tits-up. (I lost a pile in PGH). The “Water Protectors” pipeline was to get the oil from Canada to the Koch Refinery. Well, the replacement heavy was planned to come from VZ. That was Bolton and Eliot Abrams job, via Quido, then the Bay of Piglets. Typical bureaucrats planning and execution. The plunge in the oil price, the Saudi’s make up for by pumping more, cuz they got it, destroys the US frackers, and so it goes. Trump’s learning not to depend on the public servants to get anything done well. Those Rooskies are better oil partners than the Arabs. Leave VZ oil to Venezuelans – Koch can buy the heavy needed until the SOB drops dead. Incidentally, Saudi oil comes up for $6 – $8 a barrel, US fracked oil comes up for about $30 a barrel – and there’s no profit til the price reaches at least $50 a barrel – guess who’s paying for that loss?