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chairman donald trump Scheduled to make an announcement with the Defense Secretary pete hegseth and Navy Secretary John Phelan from his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida on Monday afternoon.
The event is scheduled for 4:30 pm ET, but no further details have emerged yet about what the president plans to say.
However, development comes after Coast Guard Second sanctioned oil tanker seized off the coast of Venezuela over the weekend and it was announced “chasing” the third,
The Secretary of Homeland Security said, “The United States will continue to block the illicit transportation of sanctioned oil that is used to finance narco-terrorism in the region.” Kristi Noem A statement posted on social media after the capture of the second ship said first interception Created on 10 December.
“We will find you, and we will stop you.”
An unnamed US official has said reuters Of the third ship: “The United States Guard is in active pursuit of a sanctioned Dark Fleet ship that is part of Venezuela’s illegal sanctions regime. It is flying a false flag and is under judicial seizure order.”
The move marks an increase in Trump’s aggression against Venezuela and its president. Nicolas MaduroWhen he announced a “blockade” of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving the Central American country’s ports.
The President has said that American ground attacks may happen soon.
Meanwhile, the administration has also got involved in this Series of deadly missile attacks This fall there was a crackdown on alleged drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, resulting in the deaths of more than 100 people.
Trump has faced heavy criticism since those attacks as the administration has failed to present evidence to back up his claims that the ships being targeted belong to dangerous drug smugglers attempting to deliver harmful narcotics to American shores.
Both Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill have expressed their discomfort with Kentucky GOP Sen. rand paul coming again on sunday warn The seizure of the tankers amounts to “provocation and prelude to war”.
“I’m not in favor of seizing these liners,” he told Jonathan Carl on ABC News. this week“I’m not in favor of blowing up these boats of unarmed people who are suspected of being drug dealers, I’m not in favor of any of that,”
Paul cited Trump’s decision as “bizarre and contradictory” to the administration’s efforts to curb trafficking from the region to the North. Pardon former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez He was sentenced to 45 years in US prison in March 2024 convicted Drug trafficking and weapons charges.
“So, some narco-terrorists are actually okay and other narco-terrorists we will blow up?” Paul asked. “And then some of them, if they are not designated as terrorists, we can arrest them?”
Since the first seizure, Venezuelan crude oil exports have declined sharply.
While many ships carrying oil to Venezuela are subject to sanctions, other ships transporting the country’s oil and crude from Iran and Russia are not banned, and some companies, particularly beamTransport Venezuelan oil on its own authorized vessels.
China Venezuela is the biggest buyer of crude, accounting for about 4 percent of its imports, with December shipments likely to average more than 600,000 barrels a day, analysts said.
At the moment, the oil market is well supplied, with millions of barrels of oil waiting to be unloaded onto tankers off the coast of China. If the embargo remains in place for some time, the loss of approximately one million barrels of crude oil supply per day is likely to send oil prices soaring.
Since the US imposed energy sanctions on Venezuela in 2019, traders and refiners buying oil from Venezuela have resorted to “shadow fleets” of tankers that hide their location and ships sanctioned to transport Iranian or Russian oil.
Shipping analysts have said dark or shadow fleets are subject to possible punitive measures from the US.