The first vessel in an Iranian convoy of ships bringing desperately needed fuel arrived in Venezuela, demonstrating both nations’ determination to undermine U.S. efforts to isolate the governments in Tehran and Caracas.
By Yahoo News
Sep 28, 2020
The Iranian tanker Forest entered Venezuelan waters early on Monday, according to tanker-tracker data collected by Bloomberg. It’s heading to El Palito refinery port, said union leader Ivan Freites. It’s one of three vessels bringing hundreds of thousands of barrels of the fuel.
Following years of mismanagement and operational neglect, national oil company Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. is unable to supply the country with gasoline, idling not only millions of cars and buses but also emergency vehicles and trucks delivering food from farms to cities.
U.S. sanctions restricting PDVSA’s ability to import fuel from international markets have worsened what were once sporadic shortages, touching off days-long queues at filling stations and more frequent unrest. The isolation efforts have also fomented closer strategic ties between Iran and Venezuela as most international oil and shipping companies avoid Venezuela for fear of risking punitive measures by the U.S.
Venezuela’s lack of fuel among top causes for food output drop
On Sunday, General Yahya Rahim-Safavi, a military adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Iran had received gold bars from Venezuela by plane as payment for gasoline shipments, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported.
“We gave Venezuela gasoline and received gold bars, and we took the gold to Iran on a plane so that nothing could happen to it along the way,” the general said, according to Mehr.
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Read More: Yahoo News – Venezuela and Iran resist U.S. sanctions with fuel flotilla
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