CARACAS (Dispatches) -- Venezuela has said its navy and air force would escort Iranian tankers arriving with much needed fuel, after Tehran warned of "consequences” if the U.S. stopped the ships from reaching their destination.
"We’re ready for whatever, whenever,” President Nicolas Maduro told state-run media, thanking "all the support” from its Middle East ally in its confrontation with the United States.
Venezuela has the world’s largest proven oil reserves, but its capacity to refine crude into gasoline is limited.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has imposed unilateral sanctions aimed at ending oil exports from Iran and Venezuela, both major crude producers. Washington has also sanctioned individual Venezuelans and Iranians.
In early April the U.S. military said it was increasing its vigilance and deploying warships in the ocean near Venezuela.
Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez said that when the Iranian ships enter the oceanic economic zone -- 200 nautical miles from the coastline -- "they will be welcomed” by Venezuelan naval ships and warplanes.
Neither Maduro nor Padrino said when the ships, which according to press reports number five and sailed from Iran in the past days, will arrive.
The Iranian fuel arrives as Venezuela faces an acute scarcity of gasoline as the country endures the novel coronavirus pandemic amid the draconian American sanctions.
Venezuela’s economy is in the midst of a free fall, battered by U.S. sanctions and mayhem caused by U.S.-backed rioters, with millions of people fleeing as they lack basic goods.
U.S.-backed opposition leader Juan Guaido said he was "very worried” about this "attempt of Iranian presence on Venezuelan soil”.
However, people waiting in line
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