During a news conference Wednesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced a new round of sanctions against five Iranian ship captains who delivered gasoline to Venezuela in violation of US demands. Pompeo warned that any other mariners considering also shipping things to Venezuela would face the same thing, and that it “is simply not worth the risk.”
The legitimacy of the US sanctions remains to be seen, as the ban on selling gas to Venezuela, or buying gas from Iran, are unilateral US measures that are only enforceable to the extent that the US threats force many nations to comply.
That the US is able to keep doing this is underscored by a pair of Venezuelan oil tankers which have spent two months stuck at sea. They are full of oil, but no country with refinery capacity will buy it, because they fear the wrath of the US, particularly its banking sanctions, if they dare to buy a drop of Venezuelan oil.
Since US sanctions are already unleashed on Iran and Venezuela as much as possible, there is little incentive for them not to do business with one another. US threats against individual captains notwithstanding, the two nations are almost certain to continue trading.
The endless shameless cruel bullying. When will its “allies” say “enough!”
The depths that America will sink to in trying to bully the world is disgusting.
For them to have a National Anthem which speaks of “the land of the free” is even more disgusting,
Or “home of the brave”. Gad, what a joke that is.
Relax, it’ll soon be over because America is going down fast. These are pangs of dying, corrupt, greedy, amoral empire.
Heres hoping
Amen. And too bad because America had the potential to do much good for mutual benefit. We chose the wrong road, so now we’ll pay the price.
Here is an interesting look at how Russia feels about Washington’s attempts to force its anti-Iran sanctions on other nations:
http://viableopposition.blogspot.com/2020/06/russia-and-iran-growing-partnership.html
Despite what Washington might want or believe, Iran does not stand alone.
Ever notice how Russian diplomats talk like diplomats and our diplomats talk like mobsters?
These sanctions are cowardly acts, we are afraid that our form of government may be inferior to other forms so we lie, cheat, steal and yes commit murder to keep others from finding out the truth about the system we say is superior. If we really believed in our system we would let others decide for themselves which system is best.
There is a problem with storage capacity so it seems reasonable that tankers are not offloading. I believe Venezuela has no more storage capacity and is reducing production. China however is still accepting something like 400,000 barrels a day from Venezuela.