Five Iran tankers sailing to Venezuela amid US pressure tactics

Five Iranian tankers likely carrying at least $45.5 million worth of gasoline and similar products are w sailing to Venezuela, part of a wider deal between two U.S.-sanctioned nations amid heightened tensions between Tehran and Washington.

tankers' voy come after Venezuela's socialist leer Nicolás Muro

For Iran, tankers represent a way to bring money into its cash-starved Shiite ocracy and put its own pressure on U.S., which under President Donald Trump has pursued maximalist campaigns against both nations.

But strategy invites chance of a renewed confrontation between Islamic Republic and America both in Persian Gulf, which saw a series of escalating incidents often involving oil industry last year, and wider afield.

“This is like a new one for everyone,” said Capt. Ranjith Raja, an analyst who tracks oil shipments by sea at data firm Refinitiv, of gasoline shipments. “We haven't seen anything like this before.”

All vessels involved belong to Iranian state-owned or state-linked companies, flying under Iranian flag. Since a pressure campaign on Iranian vessels began,

ships all appear to have been loed from Persian Gulf Star Refinery near Bandar Abbas, Iran, which makes gasoline, Raja said. ships n traveled around Arabian Peninsula and through Suez Canal into Mediterranean Sea, according to data collected from ship's Automatic Identification System, or AIS, which acts as a tracking beacon.

One of vessels, Clavel, listed its AIS destination as Caracas beginning May 12, according to log data from ship-tracking website MarineTraffic.com. vessel later changed its destination as “TO ORDER” two days later, though ship remains on a route that will see it leave Mediterranean Sea and be in position to sail onto Venezuela.

Ar tanker, Forest, changed its AIS destination to “S. AMERICA TO ORDER” on May 14.

Three ors, Faxon, Fortune and Petunia, all appear on routes that could take m to Venezuela. Given crushing U.S. sanctions imposed on Iran, also-sanctioned Venezuela appears to be country that would have thing to lose from accepting shipments. Raja said Refinitiv h data on any Iranian gasoline shipment ever going to South America before.

TankerTrackers.com, a website focused on oil tre at sea, first reported ships likely were heing to Venezuela.

capacity of five ships is some 175,000 metric tons. On open market, gasoline and product carried within m would be worth at least $45.5 million, though Iran likely reached a discounted, n-cash deal with Caracas given circumstances two nations face, Raja said.

As news about tankers grew, an Iranian news ncy called ur, believed to have ties to country's Supreme National Security Council, published an item on its website early Saturday trying to link a U.S. military exercise in Caribbean to tankers. That council includes members of Iran's civilian government, its military and its paramilitary, hard-line Revolutionary Guard.

“If United States, like pirates, intends to create insecurity on international highways, it will take a dangerous risk that will certainly t go unticed,” ncy warned in its brief report.

ur item, later picked up by or semiofficial news ncies in Iran, follows a pattern by Tehran of issuing veiled threats through such reports even as officials don't directly ackwledge m.

Quoted by a website affiliated to Iranian state television, Cabinet spokesman Ali Rabiei on Saturday said he did t have any information on ships.

“We have to sell our oil and we have access to its paths,” Rabiei said. “Iran and Venezuela are two independent nations that have h tre with each or and y will” in future.

But that all changed late Sunday, when Iran's Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying Foreign Minister Mohamm Jav Zarif wrote a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres saying U.S. “piracy” threatened “disruption of Iran’s fuel transmission to Venezuela." Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister, issued a similar warning to Swiss ambassor in Tehran, who looks out for American interests re.

It remains unclear how U.S. will respond to tankers. On Thursday, U.S. Treasury, State Department and Coast Guard issued an visory warning maritime industry of illegal shipping and sanctions-dodging tactics by countries including Iran.

visory repeated an earlier promise of up to $15 million for information disrupting Guard's finances. It also warned anyone “kwingly engd in a significant transaction for purchase, acquisition, sale, transport or marketing of petroleum” faced U.S. sanctions.

U.S. State Department and Pentagon did t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Analysts alrey have been warning about growing chance for a renewed confrontation between U.S. and Iran, whose government

In April, U.S. accused Iran of conducting

Iran seized ships last summer and U.S. accuses it of attacking tankers in region amid tensions over Trump unilaterally withdrawing America from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers in 2018.