U.S. President Donald Trump announced that American forces seized a “very large” oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, during a period of heightened tensions between Washington and Caracas.
“We just seized a tanker off the coast of Venezuela, a large tanker, very large, the largest ever seized,” Trump told reporters. The government of Nicolás Maduro described it as an “act of international piracy.”
According to CBS News, the ship is the Skipper, which has been under sanctions since 2022 due to its alleged ties to Iran and Hezbollah, information confirmed by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Venezuela’s main resource is crude oil, on which the U.S. imposed an embargo in 2019, resulting in its sale on the black market.
The U.S. government is intensifying pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, whom Donald Trump said in a recent interview with Politico has “counted days” in power.
With the stated goal of combating drug cartels, the U.S. has deployed a strong military force in the Caribbean for months, including the world’s largest and most advanced aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford.
Washington accuses the Venezuelan president and his government of running drug cartels. Caracas denies the claims and accuses the U.S. of using drug enforcement as a pretext “to impose regime change” in Venezuela and seize the country’s vast oil reserves.
Source: Guardian
What is fyi.news?
