US intends to keep the oil from seized Venezuelan tanker
Leavitt said the seizure provides effect to long-standing U.S. sanctions policies rather than being an escalation of U.S. efforts to oust Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro or a step toward war with Venezuela. He refused to rule out the possibility of additional seizures.
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“We will not stand by and watch sanctioned ships sail the seas carrying black market oil, the revenues of which will fuel the narco-terrorism of rogue and illegitimate regimes around the world,” he said.
“Prolonged war is definitely not something this president is interested in. He wants peace. He also wants to see an end to illegal drug smuggling into the United States.”
President Donald Trump was vague about future actions yesterday, saying “there are other things going on” but declining to say what they were. The US government does not recognize Maduro as the legitimate leader of Venezuela. He has been in power since 2013 and claimed victory in mock elections last year.
In the statement made by the Kremlin, it was stated that Putin spoke with Maduro on the phone on Thursday and expressed his solidarity with the Venezuelan people and reaffirmed his support for the policies of the Maduro government “aimed at protecting national interests and sovereignty in the face of increasing external pressure.”
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The two countries signed a Strategic Partnership and Cooperation Agreement last month. “Both sides reaffirmed their mutual commitment to the consistent implementation of joint projects in trade and economy, energy, finance, cultural and humanitarian affairs and other fields,” the Kremlin said.
Leavitt said he would not be impressed by Trump’s Putin-Maduro call.
Venezuela, Russia and Iran often use shadow fleet tankers, transshipments and third-party countries to export oil in an environment crippled by U.S. and global sanctions. Trump said yesterday that this ship, the Skipper, was the largest ship ever captured.
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil Pinto called the seizure “a blatant act of robbery and international piracy made public by the President of the United States.”
Meanwhile, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado said on Thursday that “decisive” actions by the United States, including the seizure of the oil tanker, had left Maduro’s repressive government at its weakest point.
He spoke after his first public appearance in nearly a year following his arrival in the Norwegian capital Oslo, where his daughter received the Nobel Peace Prize on his behalf on Wednesday.
Machado said Trump’s action “was decisive in getting us to where we are now, where the regime is significantly weaker.” “Because before the regime was thinking about its immunity… Now they’re starting to understand that this is serious and the world is watching.”
Machado vowed to return to the country to continue the fight for democracy but sidestepped questions about whether U.S. military intervention was necessary to remove Maduro from power.
