The United States has seized a large oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, President Donald Trump has said, amid soaring tensions between Washington and Caracas.<\/p>\n
“We’ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela, a large tanker, very large \u2014 the largest one ever seized actually,” Mr Trump told reporters.<\/p>\n
“And other things are happening, so you’ll be seeing that later and you’ll be talking about that later with some other people.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Donald Trump says the oil tanker was the largest one to be seized. (AP: Evan Vucci)<\/p>\n
Mr Trump did not immediately give further details about the incident.<\/p>\n
Decades of flashpoints could see Trump soon attack this nation<\/a><\/p>\n Tensions between Donald Trump and Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro Moros have been escalating for months.<\/p>\n His announcement came a day before Venezuelan Nobel Peace Prize winner and opposition leader, Mar\u00eda Corina Machado, was set to address the world from Oslo after coming out of hiding.<\/p>\n Three US officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the operation was led by the US Coast Guard, supported by the US Navy.<\/p>\n The Coast Guard members who seized the tanker were taken to the ship by a helicopter from the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R Ford \u2014 the world’s largest military aircraft carrier \u2014 a US official confirmed to The Associated Press.<\/p>\n Video posted online by Attorney-General Pam Bondi shows people fast-roping from one of the helicopters involved in the operation as it hovers just feet from the deck.<\/p>\n The US seizure of the Venezuelan tanker was filmed by Coast Guard and US Navy personnel. (Reuters: Supplied \/ US Attorney General)<\/p>\n The Coast Guard members can be seen in later shots of the video moving throughout the superstructure of the ship with their weapons drawn.<\/p>\n Ms Bondi wrote that “for multiple years, the oil tanker has been sanctioned by the United States due to its involvement in an illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organizations”.<\/p>\n They did not name the tanker, which country’s flag it was flying or exactly where the interdiction took place.<\/p>\n US personnel could be seen abseiling out of a military helicopter over the tanker. (Reuters: Supplied \/ US Attorney-General)<\/p>\n British maritime risk management group Vanguard said the tanker Skipper was believed to have been seized off Venezuela early on Wednesday.<\/p>\n The Skipper tanker was sanctioned by Washington in 2022 over ties to Iran and Hezbollah, CBS News reported. Washington previously said the tanker was sanctioned for involvement in Iranian oil trading<\/a>, when it was called the Adisa.<\/p>\n Hezbollah is the Lebanese Shia Muslim militant group, backed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, that has long been in conflict with Israel<\/a>.<\/p>\n Loading…<\/p>\n The Skipper left Venezuela’s main oil port of Jose between December 4 and 5 after loading Venezuela’s Merey heavy crude, according to satellite info analysed by TankerTrackers.com and PDVSA’s internal shipping data.<\/p>\n Mr Trump’s administration has piled pressure on Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, deploying a fleet of warships and the world’s largest aircraft carrier under the pretext of combating drug trafficking.<\/p>\n The US has also carried out deadly strikes on more than 20 alleged drug boats in the region, killing at least 87 people.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n