US seizes Iranian gas heading for Venezuela:
CARACAS/USThe United States seized the cargo of four tankers for transporting Iranian fuel to Venezuela as it steps up its campaign of maximum pressure against the two heavily sanctioned allies, news reports said.
A senior American official told The Associated Press news agency no military force was used in the seizures and the ships were not physically confiscated. Rather, US officials threatened ship owners, insurers and captains with sanctions to force them to hand over their cargo, which now becomes US property. Prosecutors alleged the four ships were transporting to Venezuela 1.1 million barrels of gasoline. But the tankers never arrived at the South American country and then went missing. Two of the ships later reappeared near Cape Verde, a second US official said.
Both officials agreed to discuss the sensitive diplomatic and judicial offensive only if granted anonymity. Iran’s ambassador to Venezuela said reports that Iranian tankers had been seized were “yet another lie and psychological warfare” by the United States. “The ships are not Iranian, and neither the owner nor its flag has anything to do with Iran,” Hojat Soltani said on Twitter in Spanish. “This is another lie and act of psychological warfare perpetrated by the US propaganda machine,” Soltani said. “The terrorist #Trump cannot compensate for his humiliation and defeat by Iran using false propaganda.” It is not clear where the vessels the Bella, Bering, Pandi and Luna - or their cargoes currently are, but the ship captains weeks ago turned off their tracking devices to hide their locations, said Russ Dallen, a Miamibased partner at brokerage Caracas Capital Markets, who follows ship movements.
The Bering went dark on May 11 in the Mediterranean near Greece and has not turned on its transponder since, while the Bella did the same July 2 in the Philippines, Dallen said. The Luna and Pandi were last spotted when they were together in the Gulf of Oman on July 10 when the US seizure order came. Shipping data shows that the Pandi, which also goes by Andy, is reporting that it has been “broken up,” or sold as scrap, Dallen said. As commercial traders increasingly shun Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro’s socialist government has been increasingly turning to Iran.
(Al Jazeera)