US moves against ships accused of doing business with Iran and/or Venezuela have not stopped efforts by Iranian tankers to operate. Iranian supertanker Honey is, according to a shipping report, loading Venezuela’s top grade of exportable crude, with an eye toward exporting the crude to Asian countries.
This would be a huge relief for Venezuela, as US threats have kept most of the world afraid to try to trade in Venezuelan crude. Iran is under so many threats at this point that it probably doesn’t register as an additional concern for them.
In trading in Venezuelan crude, importers can probably expect to buy at a somewhat below market price, either for direct use or by some company which intends to re-export while hiding the oil’s original origin.
The Trump Administration has seized ships, sanctioned ships, and in some cases claimed the right to auction off the seized cargo on the tankers and keep the money. All of that is a risk, but again it’s a risk that the Iranians face routinely.
despicable backwards amerikans—uncivilized, crude and stupified
A pirate nation of parasites.
I wonder how they’ll find a way to sink or dismantle the ship.
Gosh, but that would pollute the ocean … only China does that, or so says the prez.
seize the ship, send the crew members home.. off load the crude and then sink the vessel off the Venezuelan coast, auction off the crude and have a party with the proceeds. get all fucked up, sit back and laugh at the dumb fools who dare to defy the U.S.
A true nation of pirates run by criminals.
I’ll bet you have a red hat?
And a black heart.
no but i have a really big ????. lol.. you know
It’s people who say things that who have made the US the laughing-stock of the world. I really hope I live long enough to see the US get its well-deserved comeuppance.
Couldn’t they get a Russian naval escort?
As an American, let me apologize to the world for the criminal actions of a government that in no way represents me or many other decent people, despite claims of “representative government”.
“Honey is loading …”
Would Trump et al. be interested in Iran and Venezuela at all if honey were their main product?
The US has not actually “seized” ships, meaning to board them by force.
Instead they seized them by intimidation of the crew, getting them to surrender the ship by threats of future sanctions on the crew as individuals.
Iran can protect against that by careful selection of crew and reassurance of them that they will be protected in future.
This is not something that requires Iran to be able to fight the USN, which means that Iran actually can do it.
The USA is the bully boy of the world. The failed state of the USA is now the laughing stock of the world, no better than a tin pot country run by a corrupt dictator and tip pot regime led by the idiot Trump.