“The Venezuelan government has ordered the naval forces to escort vessels carrying oil products from the port.”, — write: www.pravda.com.ua
Illustrative photo: Costfoto/NurPhoto via Getty Images Source: The New York Times
Details: As the newspaper writes, this increases the risk of confrontation with the United States after US President Donald Trump ordered a “blockade” against the country’s oil industry.
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According to three people familiar with the matter, several ships left the country’s east coast accompanied by naval forces between Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning.
The publication writes that the Venezuelan government introduced military escort in response to Trump’s threats.
The vessels in this convoy do not appear on the current list of US sanctioned vessels, so it is unclear whether they could be subject to Trump’s blockade.
On Tuesday, Trump said he was targeting oil tankers that had violated US trade sanctions.
An anonymous US official said Washington was aware of the escort and was considering various options, but declined to provide details.
Simultaneously Trump, speaking to reporters at the Andrews military base near Washington, said he wants to restore Venezuela’s oil rights, which he says have been lost.
“It’s a blockade. We’re not going to let anyone through who shouldn’t be… They took all our oil… They took it illegally… they took our oil rights. We had a lot of oil there. They threw out our companies. And we want it back.”
What preceded:
- On December 17, US President Donald Trump announced a complete blockade of Venezuela’s oil tankers subject to sanctions.
- American troops, concentrated in the Caribbean, took full control of an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela on December 10.
- At the end of November, Trump said that the United States would “very soon” begin to take measures to stop the ground movement of Venezuelans suspected of drug trafficking.
- On November 14, US Defense Minister Pete Hegseth announced the start of a large-scale military operation, which, according to the official statements of the US administration, is aimed at combating drug trafficking.
- However, the unprecedented deployment of military forces, including an aircraft carrier strike group, and earlier discussions in the White House about options for military operations in Venezuela could indicate a possible military intervention.
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