With the arrival of Iranian oil tankers.. Maduro celebrates the “victory” and warns that his country will “never bow” to Washington

Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro celebrated the arrival of the first five oil tankers that Iran sent to his country on Sunday, warning that his country will never “kneel” before Washington, which was denouncing sending those Iranian fuel shipments to Venezuela.

“The Fortune ship has arrived,” the socialist president said in a speech broadcast on state television.

It is the first of the five tankers that bring gasoline and gasoline products to Venezuela”.

Maduro praised the good relations between Venezuela and Iran, saying, “We are peaceful people who want development.

Two rebellious peoples and two revolutionary people will never bow to American imperialism”.

The Caracas government announced that the first of the five oil tankers that Iran sent, entered Saturday the territorial waters of Venezuela, which is subject to economic sanctions imposed by the United States, Tehran’s sworn enemy as well.

“The sister ships of the Islamic Republic of Iran are in our exclusive economic region,” Venezuelan Oil Minister Tariq Al Aissami wrote in a tweet on Twitter.

Media reported that this fleet carried about 1.5 million barrels of fuel.

The Iranian oil tanker arrived at the height of tension between Washington and Tehran.

Venezuelan state television said that the oil tanker will go to Puerto Cabo port in Carabobo state, where there is a refinery.

The television said that the other four oil tankers – Forest, Petunia, Vakson and Clafill – will arrive in the coming days.

Tehran had warned in recent days of the “consequences” of the United States intercepting the ships.

In a message to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, the Iranian Foreign Minister warned the United States of “moves to deploy its navy fleet in the Caribbean in order to interfere and cause an imbalance in (transporting) Iranian fuel to Venezuela”.

He said that any such act would be “illegal and a form of piracy”, according to a statement by the Iranian Foreign Ministry, stressing that the United States will be responsible for “the consequences of any illegal action”.

Information published by the media indicated that five oil tankers left Iran in the last days heading to the Venezuelan Caribbean islands, where the United States announced in early April to strengthen its monitoring of organized crime in this region and published warships and other parts to this end.

Tehran has repeatedly expressed its support for Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who is also backed by Russia, China, Turkey and Cuba.

The close relations between Tehran and Caracas go back to the era of former President Hugo Chavez (1999-2013).

Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world, but its production is witnessing a significant decline.

Caracas considers that the US sanctions are responsible for this collapse, while experts attribute it to the wrong political options and the lack of investment and corruption.

The Venezuelan economy is suffering from collapse amid a shortage of basic goods.

Iran has also been hit by renewed U.S. sanctions after President Donald Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal in 2018.

For his part, Cuban President Miguel Diaz Canel described the arrival of an Iranian oil tanker on the coast of Venezuela as “a move that broke the unjust, criminal and unacceptable US embargo” imposed on Venezuela, according to Iranian IRNA news agency Monday.

Canel tweeted, about the arrival of the first tanker of five Iranian oil tankers to Venezuela, which was suffering from a shortage of gasoline due to the embargo imposed by the United States.

The Tanker Tracking Center reported in a tweet on Twitter, the first ship carrying Iranian fuel, at the El Palito refinery in Venezuela.