Posted on 08/15/2020 6:27:26 AM PDT by texas booster
The Trump administration has seized the cargo of four tankers it was targeting for transporting Iranian fuel to Venezuela, U.S. officials said Thursday, as it steps up its campaign of maximum pressure against the two heavily sanctioned allies.
Last month, federal prosecutors in Washington filed a civil forfeiture complaint alleging that the sale was arranged by a businessman, Mahmoud Madanipour, with ties to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization... sanctions experts thought it would be impossible to enforce the U.S. court order in international waters.
A senior U.S. official told The Associated Press that no military force was used in the seizures and that the ships weren’t physically confiscated. Rather, U.S. officials threatened ship owners, insurers and captains with sanction to force them to hand over their cargo, which now becomes U.S. property, the official said.
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 U.S. official said.
Both officials agreed to discuss the sensitive diplomatic and judicial offensive only if granted anonymity.
An affiliate of Avantgarde facilitated the purchase for the Revolutionary Guard of the Grace 1, a ship seized last year by Britain on U.S. accusations that it was transporting oil to Syria. Iran denied the charges and the Grace 1 was eventually released. But the seizure nonetheless triggered an international standoff in which Iran retaliated by seizing a British-flagged vessel.
According to the asset forfeiture complaint, an unnamed company in February invoiced Avantgarde for a $14.9 million cash payment for the sale of the gasoline aboard the Pandi. Nonetheless, a text message between Madanipour and an unnamed co-conspirator suggest the voyage had encountered difficulties.
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
“The ship owner doesn’t want to go because of the American threat, but we want him to go, and we even agreed We will also buy the ship,” according to the message, an excerpt of which was included in the complaint.
Nonetheless, Mike Pompeo tweeted on Friday that he was pleased the Justice Department has confiscated Iranian gasoline that had been illegally sent to the Venezuelan government.
He added that if the gasoline proceeds are forfeited in U.S. courts, they could go to the U.S. Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund “instead of the hands of terrorists.”
According to the U.S. Justice Department, the cargo was intercepted on Wednesday, acting on a warrant issued by a U.S. District Court over a July 2 complaint seeking the forfeiture of all petroleum products aboard the vessels. The property is now in U.S. custody, the Justice Department said.
Just take the oil and the ship-one of the. That’ll teach em’.
Trying to learn a bit more on this action.
Iran is hurting, with over 700 reported incidents of civil unrest this week.
$14.9 million? That's gonna hurt.
Venezuela used to export gasoline. My, how times have changed for them.
According to the U.S. Justice Department, the cargo was intercepted on Wednesday, acting on a warrant issued by a U.S. District Court over a July 2 complaint seeking the forfeiture of all petroleum products aboard the vessels. The property is now in U.S. custody, the Justice Department said.
Looks like each ship took a different route to get to Venezuela.
I bet Iranian leaders would sure like to have another pallet of Obama cash about now.
Sell the cargo and ships. Give the proceeds to Israel.
Sweet justice.
But as I understand it, the cargoes are impounded but not the ships.
How is seizing cargo on the high seas legal? Are we at war with Venezuela or with Iran? What are the unintended consequences of this action? — Will other nations, say China, now start seizing cargoes and ships because they declared sanctions?
Did we just declare war on Venezuela or Iran?
“State oil company Petroleos de Venezuela’s [PDVSA.UL] refinery network has the capacity to produce 1.3 million barrels per day (bpd) of fuel. But after years of underinvestment and lack of maintenance, those refineries processed just 101,000 bpd of crude and produced just 7,000 bpd of gasoline in March, according to an internal PDVSA document.”
The Democrats want this to be our future.
captain_dave wrote:
“How is seizing cargo on the high seas legal? Are we at war with Venezuela or with Iran? What are the unintended consequences of this action? — Will other nations, say China, now start seizing cargoes and ships because they declared sanctions?
Did we just declare war on Venezuela or Iran?”
Article doesn’t say exactly —who— intercepted those ships.
Maybe these folks did:
https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2020/april/unleash-privateers
Venezuela used to export gasoline. My, how times have changed for them.
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The democrat vision for the U.S.
There are legal judgments against both countries requiring compensation.
Privateers....Great Idea
Excellent article.
Thank you.
Interesting. Thanks for the adding some color to the discussion.
Sounds voluntary,no force used.
If we are not careful we will make Iran mad enough they will fire another missile at themselves.
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