One relationship that continues to irk Washington is the growing trade partnership between Iran and Venezuela. The two countries are both under heavy US sanctions and have nothing to lose for violating them.
The US military is now accusing Iran of sending weapons and paramilitary operatives to support Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Since the Trump administration’s regime change effort spectacularly failed, the US likes to blame Maduro’s success on countries it sees as adversaries.
The top US military commander for Central and South America made the accusation on Wednesday. “We see a growing Iranian influence in there,” Adm. Craig Fuller, the head of US Southern Command, said. According to The Wall Street Journal, Fuller said there was an “alarming and concerning” presence of military personnel from the elite Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Washington has been upset about Iran selling gasoline to Venezuela in exchange for gold, a form of payment US sanctions cannot touch. The US was also angry about an Iranian-owned grocery store that opened in Caracas over the summer.
“We’re concerned about what we see … It’s not just oil shipments, it’s arms shipments as well,” Fuller said. “We saw an uptick in that this year. We are watching the rate of change very carefully.”
Fuller did not specify what weapons he has seen. Considering what a big deal the US makes out of gas shipments to Venezuela, if there were concrete evidence of Iranian weapons going into the country, it would likely be presented.
In October, US envoy for Venezuela and Iran Elliot Abrams told Fox News that Iran shipping weapons to Venezuela “is not acceptable to the United States and will not be tolerated or permitted.” An anonymous US official said Washington any weapons that made it to Venezuela would be “eliminated.”
The US has taken extreme measures to halt shipments to Venezuela before. Earlier this year, the US seized four oil tankers carrying Iranian gas. Since then, some of the fuel has been discharged in New York and New Jersey.
despicable americanism–putrefaction
And not just in Venezuela, but also in Los Angles and Des Moines. LOL!
ps: we have the most violent, psycho and nutty military in the world.
Iran doesnt need US consent to trade freely with Venezuela its none of their business .
Iran might ship weapons to Venezuela now that UN resolution 2231 makes it clear that they can do so without prior notification but that has only been in effect for one month.
I have nothing against Iran but I don’t understand why we don’t see more commerce w/Russia who has experience with both economic weaponry as well as heavy oil refining.
From Pompeo: “The Maximum Pressure campaign against the Iranian regime continues to be extraordinarily effective. Today, Iran’s economy faces a currency crisis, mounting public debt, and rising inflation. Prior to the Maximum Pressure campaign, Iran was exporting nearly 2.5 million barrels of oil per day. Now it struggles to export even a quarter of that volume.”
And yet they have the resources to be all over the fucking world. Amazing. How do they do it???
Both US military commanders are lying their teeth…1
And Iran can counter that US troops and weaponry are in dozens of other countries.
Since when has the us owned Latin America telling them what they can and can`t do ,who the hell dothe Americans think they are .