{"id":86220,"date":"2020-06-01T06:00:29","date_gmt":"2020-06-01T11:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/?p=86220"},"modified":"2020-06-01T06:01:05","modified_gmt":"2020-06-01T11:01:05","slug":"auto-draft-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/2020\/06\/01\/auto-draft-10\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s Behind Iran’s Fuel Shipment to Venezuela?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"VOA \u2014 WASHINGTON – The arrival in Venezuela of five Iranian oil tankers is expected to ease the South American nation\u2019s gasoline crisis, while challenging U.S. sanctions targeting both countries. \u00a0
\n\u00a0
\nThe Iranian fuel tankers began arriving in Venezuela last week under the protection of Venezuelan military forces, with the fifth cargo reportedly arriving on Sunday.
\n\u00a0
\nVenezuela\u2019s oil sector has been acutely damaged by years of political and economic instability. Iran says the fuel shipment provided to Venezuela is about 1.53 million barrels of gasoline and petrochemical components.
\n\u00a0
\nU.S. sanctions imposed on Venezuelan state-owned oil company PDVSA also have crippled Venezuela\u2019s ability to import certain types of fuel from abroad, but the government of President Nicolas Maduro has turned to Iran for refining parts and fuel.
\n\u00a0
\nOn Saturday, Venezuelan officials announced that the Iranian gasoline has arrived at hundreds of gas station across the country.
\n\u00a0
\n\u201cVenezuela has the right to buy in the world whatever it wants to buy,\u201d Maduro said in a recent speech. \u201cFortunately, Venezuela has more friends than what people can imagine.\u201d
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\nDefying Washington\u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>
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\nIran and Venezuela are under U.S. economic sanctions, which has brought the two countries closer economically and politically.
\n\u00a0
\n\u201cIran and Venezuela have always supported each other in times of difficulty,\u201d Venezuelan foreign minister Jorge Arreaza said in today last week, adding that, \u201cToday we see the fruits of the multipolar world, of our Bolivarian Diplomacy for Peace and South-South Cooperation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The South-South cooperation refers to the technical cooperation among developing countries in the Global South, including the sharing of skills and resources.
\n\u00a0
\nSome experts believe that the Iranian move to transport oil to Venezuela is a show of defiance against the U.S. by the two allies.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\"A<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>
A Venezuelan oil worker holds a small Iranian flag during a ceremony marking the arrival of Iranian oil tanker Fortune at the El Palito refinery near Puerto Cabello, Venezuela, May 25, 2020.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThis move is very significant,\u201d said Alireza Mehrabi, a political analyst in Tehran. \u201cIt sends a message that U.S. hegemony is nose-diving, and countries of the South should strengthen their relations and circumvent threats and sanctions imposed by Washington through building strategic ties.\u201d
\n\u00a0
\nOther Iranian experts, however, say that this dominant narrative propagated by the Iranian government could send mixed signals.
\n\u00a0
\n\u201cThis sends a signal that [U.S. President Donald] Trump\u2019s maximum pressure policy on Tehran has been effective so much so that Iran is willing to take grave risks to sell its oil (products) to Venezuela under a very uncertain barter deal,\u201d said Mehdi Mottaharnia, a Tehran-based international affairs analyst.
\n\u00a0
\nUS pressure<\/strong>
\n\u00a0 \u00a0
\nU.S. officials said the United States was applying pressure to deter Iran and Venezuela from carrying out the oil transfer, while also warning foreign governments, seaports, shipping companies and insurers that they could face U.S. sanctions if they assist the tanker fleet.
\n\u00a0
\n\u201cWe\u2019ve alerted the shipping community around the world, ship owners, ship captains, ship insurers, and we\u2019ve alerted ports along the way between Iran and Venezuela,\u201d Elliott Abrams, U.S. special representative on Venezuela, told Reuters Friday.
\n\u00a0
\nEarlier in May, the U.S. issued a global maritime advisory, giving guidance to the shipping industry on how to avoid sanctions related to Iran, North Korea and Syria.
\n\u00a0
\nBut Iranian President Hassan Rouhani warned last week that any U.S. intervention against Iranian oil tankers bound to Venezuela would be met with retaliation.
\n\u00a0
\n\u201cAny pirate-like action by the U.S. Navy against the Iranian fuel shipments to Venezuela would trigger a harsh response,\u201d Rouhani was quoted as saying by pro-Iranian government Nour News Agency.<\/p>\n

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\n
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\"Men<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>
Men push a car that ran out of gas to a state-run oil company gas station, in Caracas, Venezuela, May 25, 2020.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

No desire for conflict<\/strong>
\n\u00a0
\nObservers believe that Washington has no desire to start a conflict with Venezuela over a fuel shortage that could be seen \u201ca humanitarian crisis.\u201d
\n\u00a0
\n\u201cUnder the circumstances, the passing of the tankers can be interpreted as a weakness for the United States,\u201d said Jos\u00e9 Toro Hardy, a prominent Venezuelan economist and a former director of the country\u2019s PDVSA.
\n\u00a0
\n\u201cBut I thought for humanitarian reasons, (the Americans) were going to let the tankers pass. I also thought that they could have stopped some of the tankers to guarantee if the only thing they brought was gasoline, because it has also been said that (Iranian tankers) could bring other things,\u201d he told VOA.
\n\u00a0 \u00a0
\n\u201cI believe that any action the U.S. takes or has been taking in the form of sanctions, is taken when the U.S. is interested to do so,\u201d Hardy added.
\n\u00a0
\nWashington backs Maduro\u2019s rival Juan Guaido and considers him as Venezuela\u2019s legitimate leader following a presidential crisis in January 2019.
\n\u00a0
\nYousof Azizi, a research assistant at the Virginia Tech university, says while this oil transaction between Iran and Venezuela \u201cis not significant and plays no major role in Iran\u2019s sanction-stricken economy,\u201d it could have a political motive behind it.\u00a0 \u00a0
\n\u00a0
\n\u201cTehran has meticulously evaluated the U.S. political climate in the months leading to the (presidential) election and decided to challenge Washington, reckoning that no response should be expected from Washington despite pressure from \u2018Hawks\u2019 within the incumbent administration,\u201d he told VOA.
\n\u00a0
\nAzizi noted that the U.S. hasn\u2019t decided to take any immediate action against Iran, \u201cpartly due to the fact that the U.S. is aware that escalating tensions would not be beneficial to Trump\u2019s bid for a second term.\u201d
\n\u00a0
\nWorkforce shortage<\/strong>
\n\u00a0 \u00a0
\nThe supply reportedly will help Venezuelans authorities expand retail sales of gasoline under a system combining subsidies and international prices.<\/p>\n

\u201cIran has sent additives, in this case alkylate, one of the components necessary to refine gasoline,\u201d said Ivan Freitas, leader of the Unitary Federation for Oil Workers in Venezuela.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
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\"A<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>
A worker wearing a face mask to protect against the coronavirus waits while a tanker truck fills the gasoline reservoir of a state oil company gas station, in Caracas, Venezuela, May 31, 2020.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIran assumes that Venezuela can obtain the other components on its own to restart the refineries. But even if this is the case, the conditions in which these plants find themselves, four in total in the country, are very bad,\u201d he told VOA.
\n\u00a0
\nBut Freitas noted that Venezuela faces a massive shortage of qualified oil workers capable of operating oil refineries.
\n\u00a0
\nQualified workers have left Venezuela. Only 2 or 3% of qualified (workers) have remained,\u201d he said, adding that if the Venezuelan government \u201cput a plant into service, it would be a lottery to know for how long it will work. There will be no operational stability. In these conditions, the refineries are of high risk.\u201d
\n\u00a0
\nGold payment<\/strong>
\n\u00a0 \u00a0
\nSome experts say that given Venezuela\u2019s deteriorating economy and following the departure of Russian oil company Rosneft from the country, Caracas will likely pay Iran in gold for its fuel supply.
\n\u00a0
\n\u201cIt looks like the only way [Venezuela)] can pay is with gold. Simply because Venezuela\u2019s oil production has declined, and oil represented 97% of Venezuela’s foreign exchange earnings,\u201d economist Hardy said.
\n\u00a0
\nHe added that \u201cthere is no foreign exchange income. The other foreign exchange income was through the remittances of the more than 5 million Venezuelans who have left and were sending money to their families, but during the COVID-19 pandemic that has been abruptly interrupted.
\n\u00a0
\n\u201cThe only alternative that Venezuela could have that interests Iran in economic terms is gold,\u201d Hardy concluded.
\n\u00a0
\nSome information in this report came from Reuters.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VOA \u2014 WASHINGTON – The arrival in Venezuela of five Iranian oil tankers is expected to ease the South American nation\u2019s gasoline crisis, while challenging U.S. sanctions targeting both countries. \u00a0 \u00a0 The Iranian fuel tankers began arriving in Venezuela last week under the protection of Venezuelan military forces, with the fifth cargo reportedly arriving […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":86221,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latests"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.2","language":"en","enabled_languages":["fa","en"],"languages":{"fa":{"title":true,"content":false,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}