After a year that has included a terrible death toll from coronavirus, political and military challenges in Syria and Iraq, the targeted killing of one of the Iranian regime's key figures, and two unprecedented waves of anti-regime protests, Iran is declaring the arrival of an Iranian oil tanker in Venezuela a victory against the United States and US sanctions on Iranian oil exports.
Media outlets aligned with the regime in Tehran celebrated on Monday the arrival of the tanker Fortune in Venezuela, which is also under harsh US sanctions.
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According to the maritime traffic monitor MarineTraffic, the vessel carried 43 million liters of gasoline.
An impassioned editorial on the website of the Tasnim news agency quotes a Kuwaiti newspaper, which called the tanker's unimpeded arrival a "smack in the face for the administration of Donald Trump."
Tasnim also wrote that "the transfer of fuel to besieged Venezuela is more proof that the policy of siege is collapsing."
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro thanked the Iranian leadership for the oil shipment on Twitter. Other officials in the Maduro regime posted images of Iranian flags to their own social media accounts. Some even went so far as to post pictures of former commander of Iran's elite Quds Force, Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a US airstrike in early January.
Last week, the Trump administration warned Iran that the blatant violation of US sanctions would meet with an American response. However, none was forthcoming. Iran, in turn, made threats that if the US took any action against the oil tanker that was en route to Venezuela, Iran would retaliate against US vessels in the Persian Gulf.
An additional four oil tankers have already embarked from Iran's Shahid Rajaee Port for Caracas. One of them appears to have entered Venezuelan territorial waters. The US government has not yet addressed these shipments.
