Iran issues ‘serious warning’ to US against disrupting oil shipments to Venezuela
- Iran’s Fars News claimed that it had received information that four US Navy warships are in the Caribbean for a ‘possible confrontation with Iran’s tankers’
Iran’s foreign minister on Sunday warned the US against deploying its navy in the Caribbean to disrupt Iranian fuel shipments to Venezuela.
In a letter to United Nations chief Antonio Guterres, Mohammad Javad Zarif warned against “America’s movements in deploying its navy to the Caribbean to intervene and create disruption in (the) transfer of Iran’s fuel to Venezuela.”
He said that any such action would be “illegal and a form of piracy”, according to a foreign ministry statement.
Zarif added that the US would be responsible for “the consequences of any illegal measure”.
Iran’s Fars News claimed Saturday that it had received information that four US Navy warships are in the Caribbean for a “possible confrontation with Iran’s tankers.”
Elliot Abrams, the State Department’s Venezuela envoy, has alleged that Caracas is paying Iran in gold to restore its troubled oil sector.
The US has imposed unilateral sanctions aimed at ending oil exports by both Iran and Venezuela, both major crude producers.