Described by the Justice Department as the largest fuel shipment from Iran ever taken, the US is slowly shipping the gasoline up the coast to New Jersey. Officials want to sell it, but that’s a legal issue that the Justice Department has yet to sort out.
Four gasoline tankers were seized by the US, to prevent delivery to Venezuela. The way the administration figures it, it’s Iranian gas, so it belongs to the Revolutionary Guards, which gives them a license to take it and sell it.
The actual owners of the gasoline disagree, saying they own the gasoline, not Iran, and that the US can’t just take it. The US has just taken it, to be clear, but they have to get through court to be allowed to sell it.
Evidence of where the gas came from and where it’s going doesn’t seem cut and dried, and the US seems to have bet on no one challenging this if they made the accusation publicly. The legal battle could be expensive and likely will cost more than the gasoline is worth, but those who seized it got to brag about the biggest ever seizure for awhile.
It is amazing that the US suddenly does not agree with the “Freedom of the seas (Latin: mare liberum, lit. “free sea”) principle”
For more than two centuries we are it biggest proponent and it is one of the reasons we fought the war of independence from Great Britain.
Today, the concept of “freedom of the seas” can be found in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea under Article 87(1) which states: “the high seas are open to all states, whether coastal or land-locked”. Article 87(1) (a) to (f) gives a non-exhaustive list of freedoms including navigation, overflight, the laying of submarine cables, building artificial islands, fishing and scientific research.”
In 1794 we fought the Barbary Pirates in our first extra territory war over this freedom.
It is highly unlikely that any conservative US court will agree with the Trump administration’s concept of rights under unilateral sanctions over this issue, no matter how they feel about Venezuela.
https://scholarlycommons.law.hofstra.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2344&context=hlr
Unless it goes to the Supreme court….
If only Ginsberg could have held on for a couple more months. Soon we’ll be ruled by the 10 commandments.
From a Trump point of view Amy may end up being a hammer that flattens many of his policies down if he makes it into a second term.
https://www.npr.org/sections/supreme-court-nomination/2020/09/24/915781077/conenator-who-is-amy-coney-barrett-front-runner-for-supreme-court-nomination
Why is this still being claimed to be Iranian oil? It was sold to a company in UAE, was it not?
Piracy is Ok. So is outright thieving under the present US government.
Donald Trump and the Latterday Pirates.
it is gasoline so it is already refined and probably worth a great deal more than oil. no wonder uncle samuel is slobbering over this prize.
anyway, doesn’t this piracy BS just make yalls proud to be patriots!
Legal barriers? This is a joke surely. The US Empire makes its own rules. It’s already committed piracy in seizing the tanker.