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A28 WORLD NEWS
Monday 18 May 2020
5 Iran tankers sailing to Venezuela amid U.S. pressure tactics

By JON GAMBRELL Sunday, when Iran's Foreign
Associated Press Ministry issued a statement
DUBAI, United Arab Emir- saying Foreign Minister Mo-
ates (AP) — Five Iranian hammad Javad Zarif wrote
tankers likely carrying at a letter to U.N. Secretary-
least $45.5 million worth of General Antonio Guterres
gasoline and similar prod- saying the U.S. "piracy"
ucts are now sailing to Ven- threatened the "disruption
ezuela, part of a wider deal of Iran's fuel transmission to
between the two U.S.-sanc- Venezuela."
tioned nations amid height- Abbas Araghchi, Iran's
ened tensions between deputy foreign minister, is-
Tehran and Washington. sued a similar warning to
The tankers' voyage came the Swiss ambassador in
after Venezuela's social- Tehran, who looks out for
ist leader Nicolás Maduro American interests there.
already turned to Iran for It remains unclear how
help in flying in chemicals the U.S. will respond to the
needed at an aging refin- tankers.
ery amid a gasoline short- On Thursday, the U.S. Trea-
age, a symptom of the sury, State Department and
wider economic and po- Coast Guard issued an ad-
litical chaos gripping Latin visory warning the maritime
America's one-time largest industry of illegal shipping
oil producer. and sanctions-dodging
For Iran, the tankers repre- tactics by countries includ-
sent a way to bring money ing Iran.
into its cash-starved Shiite The advisory repeated an
theocracy and put its own earlier promise of up to $15
pressure on the U.S., which million for information dis-
under President Donald rupting the Guard's financ-
Trump has pursued maxi- es. It also warned anyone
malist campaigns against "knowingly engaged in a
both nations. significant transaction for
But the strategy invites In this April 30, 2017 file photo, released by an official website of the office of the Iranian Presidency, the purchase, acquisition,
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, center, inaugurates the Persian Gulf Star Refinery in Bandar
the chance of a renewed Abbas, Iran. sale, transport or marketing
confrontation between Associated Press of petroleum" faced U.S.
the Islamic Republic and sanctions.
America both in the Persian sula and through the Suez cepting the shipments. ernment, its military and its U.S. Army Maj. Rob Lode-
Gulf, which saw a series of Canal into the Mediter- Raja said Refinitiv had no paramilitary, hard-line Rev- wick, a Pentagon spokes-
escalating incidents often ranean Sea, according to data on any Iranian gaso- olutionary Guard. man, declined to com-
involving the oil industry last data collected from the line shipment ever going to "If the United States, like ment on the Iranian ves-
year, and wider afield. ship's Automatic Identifica- South America before. pirates, intends to create sels. He referred questions
"This is like a new one for ev- tion System, or AIS, which TankerTrackers.com, a insecurity on international to the State Department,
eryone," said Capt. Ranjith acts as a tracking beacon. website focused on the oil highways, it will take a dan- which did not immediately
Raja, an analyst who tracks One of the vessels, the trade at sea, first reported gerous risk that will certain- respond.
oil shipments by sea at the Clavel, listed its AIS desti- the ships likely were head- ly not go unnoticed," the Analysts already have
data firm Refinitiv, of the nation as Caracas begin- ing to Venezuela. agency warned in its brief been warning about the
gasoline shipments. "We ning May 12, according to The capacity of the five report. growing chance for a re-
haven't seen anything like log data from ship-tracking ships is some 175,000 metric The Nour item, later picked newed confrontation be-
this before." website MarineTraffic.com. tons. On the open market, up by other semiofficial tween the U.S. and Iran,
All the vessels involved be- The vessel later changed its the gasoline and product news agencies in Iran, fol- whose government down-
long to Iranian state-owned destination as "TO ORDER" carried within them would lows a pattern by Tehran played and then struggled
or state-linked companies, two days later, though the be worth at least $45.5 of issuing veiled threats for weeks with the corona-
flying under the Iranian ship remains on a route that million, though Iran likely through such reports even virus pandemic.
flag. Since a pressure cam- will see it leave the Mediter- reached a discounted, as officials don't directly In April, the U.S. accused
paign on Iranian vessels be- ranean Sea and be in posi- non-cash deal with Cara- acknowledge them. Iran of conducting "danger-
gan, notably with the tem- tion to sail on to Venezuela. cas given the circumstanc- Quoted by a website affili- ous and harassing" maneu-
porary seizure of an Iranian Another tanker, the Forest, es the two nations face, ated to Iranian state televi- vers near American war-
tanker last year by Gibral- changed its AIS destination Raja said. sion, Cabinet spokesman ships in the northern Persian
tar, the country's ships have to "S. AMERICA TO ORDER" As news about the tank- Ali Rabiei on Saturday said Gulf. Iran also had been
been unable to fly flags of on May 14. ers grew, an Iranian news he did not have any infor- suspected of briefly seizing
convenience of other na- Three others, the Faxon, the agency called Nour, be- mation on the ships. a Hong Kong-flagged oil
tions, a common practice Fortune and the Petunia, lieved to have ties to the "We have to sell our oil tanker just before that.
in international shipping. all appear on routes that country's Supreme National and we have access to its Iran seized ships last sum-
The ships all appear to have could take them to Ven- Security Council, published paths," Rabiei said. "Iran mer and the U.S. accuses
been loaded from the Per- ezuela. Given the crushing an item on its website ear- and Venezuela are two it of attacking tankers in
sian Gulf Star Refinery near U.S. sanctions imposed on ly Saturday trying to link a independent nations that the region amid tensions
Bandar Abbas, Iran, which Iran, also-sanctioned Ven- U.S. military exercise in the have had trade with each over Trump unilaterally
makes gasoline, Raja said. ezuela appears to be the Caribbean to the tankers. other and they will" in the withdrawing America from
The ships then traveled country that would have That council includes mem- future. Tehran's nuclear deal with
around the Arabian Penin- nothing to lose from ac- bers of Iran's civilian gov- But that all changed late world powers in 2018.q