Venezuelan authorities on Monday celebrated as the first of five Iranian tankers loaded with gasoline docked in the South American country, delivering badly needed fuel to the crisis-stricken nation that sits atop the world’s largest oil reserves.
The gasoline shipments are arriving in defiance of stiff sanctions by the administration of US President Donald Trump against both nations, and they mark a new era in the burgeoning relationship between Venezuela and Iran, which is expanding its footprint in the western hemisphere.
State TV played images of the ship pulling through Caribbean waters as Venezuelan fighter jets flew overhead. Venezuelan Minister of Petroleum Tareck El Aissami posted photographs on Twitter of the sun rising over the tanker docked at El Palito refinery.
Washington has said that Iran and Venezuela are ruled by repressive regimes.
It has offered a US$15 million reward for Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s arrest on drug smuggling charges in a “maximum pressure” campaign against the socialist leader.
Washington recognizes Venezuelan National Assembly President Juan Guaido as Venezuela’s legitimate leader in a coalition of nearly 60 nations, which consider Maduro’s election a fraud because his most popular rivals were banned from running.
In a sign of rising tension inside Venezuela, Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab on Monday asked the pro-Maduro Venezuelan Supreme Tribunal of Justice to decide whether Guaido’s Popular Will party should be designated a terrorist organization.
“Confronted with the impossibility of obtaining power through votes, Popular Will has turned to violence,” Saab said, accusing the party of hiring “mercenaries” who carried out a failed incursion, among other alleged acts.
Guaido advisers had dealt with the man leading the attempt, although Guaido denied any involvement.
The first Iranian ship to arrive, the Fortune, is trailed by four other tankers expected to arrive in the next few days.
However, the shipments only carry enough fuel for two or three weeks, analysts have said.
Russ Dallen, head of Miami-based investment firm Caracas Capital Markets, said that the Iranian shipments were anything but a victory for Venezuelans.
The first tanker carries an estimated 11 million gallons of gasoline to a nation with about 5 million vehicles, he said.
“Venezuela, the country with the largest oil reserves in the world, is now reduced to importing millions of gallons of gasoline from another failed pariah state halfway around the world,” Dallen said.
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