صراط عشق صراط عشق
With Famine Looming Amid U.S. Sanctions:
CARACAS, Venezuela (Dispatches) — Iranian officials said one of their cargo ships was expected to dock in Venezuela on Sunday with food to launch the first Iranian supermarket in the South American nation.
The Golsan’s delivery marks “another success in friendly and fraternal relations between two countries,” officials at the Iranian Embassy in Caracas announced in a tweet a day earlier.
Both Iran and Venezuela are foes of President Donald Trump and heavily sanctioned by the United States and their ties have increased recently.
The food follows Iran’s recent flotilla of five tanker ships filled with gasoline sent to relieve Venezuela’s deep fuel shortages, the result of broken-down refineries and U.S. sanctions. The Golsan left Iran’s Bandar Abbas port a month ago and sailed through the Suez Canal. Iran also provided Venezuela with key ingredients needed to restart refineries and resume producing its own gasoline.
Experts say that in addition to food, the most recent shipment could also be carrying equipment to help repair Venezuela’s collapsed refineries.
“That ship can carry 23,000 tons,” said Russ Dallen, head of the Miami-based investment firm Caracas Capital Markets, who tracked the ship’s progress. “That would be enough food for a whole chain of Iranian supermarkets across the country, not just one.”
After years of a well-documented economic collapse, Venezuela is now on the verge of famine, the International Crisis Group has warned. The tightening vise of U.S. sanctions threatens to strangle what little foreign food and oil is managing to enter the country.
Iran is expected to dispatch two to three monthly shipments of gasoline to its ally Venezuela, sources close to the matter told Reuters, which would help offload the gasoline inventory that Iran accumulates, while helping to alleviate the fuel shortage in Venezuela.
Last month, President Nicolas Maduro defended his country’s right to free trade with Iran despite coercive efforts by the United States. “Venezuela and Iran both want peace, and we have the right to trade freely,” he said.
Maduro referred to the two countries as “revolutionary peoples, who will never kneel down before the North American empire”.
Maduro has said he would visit Iran in order to thank the Iranian government and sign a “high-level bilateral agreement strengthening energy, financial and military ties”.
“I am obliged to go to personally thank the people,” he said recently in a state television address, without providing a date for the visit.
Venezuela sits on the world’s largest oil reserves. Its refineries also can produce more than 1.3 million barrels per day (bpd) of fuel, but they are working at less than 20% of their capacity mainly due to power outages and lack of spare parts amid U.S. sanctions.
Last month, as Iran prepared to send five fuel tankers to Venezuela, the U.S. navy dispatched warships to the Caribbean in an apparent bid to discourage the Islamic Republic, but Tehran’s grave warning of retaliation forced the United States to stay clear of its vessels.
According to an interview published Sunday, U.S. President Donald Trump has said he would consider meeting Maduro and indicated that he is not entirely confident in the country’s opposition leader.
The Golsan’s delivery marks “another success in friendly and fraternal relations between two countries,” officials at the Iranian Embassy in Caracas announced in a tweet a day earlier.
Both Iran and Venezuela are foes of President Donald Trump and heavily sanctioned by the United States and their ties have increased recently.
The food follows Iran’s recent flotilla of five tanker ships filled with gasoline sent to relieve Venezuela’s deep fuel shortages, the result of broken-down refineries and U.S. sanctions. The Golsan left Iran’s Bandar Abbas port a month ago and sailed through the Suez Canal. Iran also provided Venezuela with key ingredients needed to restart refineries and resume producing its own gasoline.
Experts say that in addition to food, the most recent shipment could also be carrying equipment to help repair Venezuela’s collapsed refineries.
“That ship can carry 23,000 tons,” said Russ Dallen, head of the Miami-based investment firm Caracas Capital Markets, who tracked the ship’s progress. “That would be enough food for a whole chain of Iranian supermarkets across the country, not just one.”
After years of a well-documented economic collapse, Venezuela is now on the verge of famine, the International Crisis Group has warned. The tightening vise of U.S. sanctions threatens to strangle what little foreign food and oil is managing to enter the country.
Iran is expected to dispatch two to three monthly shipments of gasoline to its ally Venezuela, sources close to the matter told Reuters, which would help offload the gasoline inventory that Iran accumulates, while helping to alleviate the fuel shortage in Venezuela.
Last month, President Nicolas Maduro defended his country’s right to free trade with Iran despite coercive efforts by the United States. “Venezuela and Iran both want peace, and we have the right to trade freely,” he said.
Maduro referred to the two countries as “revolutionary peoples, who will never kneel down before the North American empire”.
Maduro has said he would visit Iran in order to thank the Iranian government and sign a “high-level bilateral agreement strengthening energy, financial and military ties”.
“I am obliged to go to personally thank the people,” he said recently in a state television address, without providing a date for the visit.
Venezuela sits on the world’s largest oil reserves. Its refineries also can produce more than 1.3 million barrels per day (bpd) of fuel, but they are working at less than 20% of their capacity mainly due to power outages and lack of spare parts amid U.S. sanctions.
Last month, as Iran prepared to send five fuel tankers to Venezuela, the U.S. navy dispatched warships to the Caribbean in an apparent bid to discourage the Islamic Republic, but Tehran’s grave warning of retaliation forced the United States to stay clear of its vessels.
According to an interview published Sunday, U.S. President Donald Trump has said he would consider meeting Maduro and indicated that he is not entirely confident in the country’s opposition leader.
