The US sold about 2 million barrels of stolen Iranian crude oil it acquired by seizing a tanker off the coast of the UAE in February, The Associated Press reported on Monday.
The Iranian oil came from the MT Achilleas, a tanker the US seized near the UAE port city of Fujairah. The US justified stealing the oil and seizing the tanker under the guise of sanctions enforcement. According to AP, US court documents allege that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) tried to sell the oil to China.
The Trump administration designated the IRGC as a terrorist organization, giving the US government the ability to seize IRGC assets. The US forced the Achilleas to sail to Houston, Texas. The US government then sold the 2 million barrels of oil for about $110 million.
The Iranian oil showed up in figures released by the US Information Energy Agency. The figures listed about 1 million barrels of crude oil that it said was “imported” from Iran, raising eyebrows since the US stopped buying Iranian oil decades ago.
Although the process of stealing the oil began before the US and Iran started indirect negotiations to revive the nuclear deal in April, it is certainly a provocative move that sends a bad signal to Tehran. It also shows a continuation of Trump-era policies, as the Trump administration’s Department of Justice stole several shipments of Iranian gasoline that was headed for Venezuela.
Bad when the most powerful become corrupt. Just proves the proverb, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absoultely.
More piracy, basically an act of war, again.
Beat me to it. It IS piracy.
That’s how sanctions work. If you’re willing to try and get around the sanctions, you take the risk of getting caught. Republicans bitched about Obama giving back money that had been held during sanctions to Iran and I guess they’ll complain about confiscating this oil and making a profit. Imagine Biden will use the money as an incentive to start nuke talks again?
Capt Jack Sparrow led the way!
Totally Fabricated News…!
pirates,dirty pirates
Once the Belt and Road initiative is complete the US will be left behind in a world of hurt
American “Diplomat:” “Sure, we steal other people’s oil, especially those sanctioned to starvation. We are leaders of the free world. We are free to starve people and steal their oil. We even have the “Department of Justice” in charge of starving people and stealing their oil.”
“War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.” –George Orwell’s 1984.
It was somebody else’s oil not Iran…! But of course US does not acknowledge that because it would be too embarrassing for them…!
According to Marine Traffic, the MT Achilleas is Liberian-flagged. It would be great if some country like Russia or China could start carrying Iranian oil in its own Russian- or Chinese-flagged tankers. Be interesting to see what would happen if the U.S. pirates tried interfering with Russian- or Chinese-flagged shipping.