A spokesman for the US National Security Council warned Iran against delivering weapons to Venezuela, and said - in statements reported by Politico - that this would be a provocative act and a threat to US partners in South America, after monitoring two Iranian warships on their way to the ocean. The Atlantic and Washington officials believe that their destination is Venezuela.
And the US Politico website quoted an official who asked not to be named that Washington would reserve the right to take appropriate measures in coordination with its partners to deter the delivery or transfer of such weapons.
And the website of the United States Naval Institute published a satellite image - taken on April 28 by the company "Maxar" - showing the Iranian ship "Makran" anchored in the port of Bandar Abbas, with 7 high-speed attack warships on board.
According to the Naval Institute website, these boats equipped with torpedoes and missiles are the same ones that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards used to harass American ships in the Gulf in the past period.
The same website also indicated that Venezuela may be trying to acquire these gunboats in order to impede navigation in the vital Panama Canal.
Doubts about the destination
Al-Jazeera correspondent in Washington, Murad Hashem, said that there is no confirmed information available so far about the final destination of the two Iranian ships and the shipment they are carrying, but the US authorities are concerned that they are heading to Venezuela, especially since Tehran concluded an arms deal with Caracas last year.
The reporter added that the Pentagon and the US National Security Council warned Iran that if the strong suspicions that the Iranian warship’s destination is Venezuela are correct,
Washington will take the necessary measures to prevent this step, as the US authorities have been closely monitoring the two warships two weeks ago after they left the Indian Ocean, then headed to East Africa and crossed the Cape of Good Hope, and it is expected that they reached the Atlantic Ocean yesterday, Thursday, according to statements by US officials to Politico.
On the other hand, Iran warned America not to make a mistake about the two warships, and a spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry said - last Monday - that his country has the right to sail its military ships in international waters, and no country in the world has the right to violate this right.
Politico said that the file of the two Iranian warships is a major challenge to the administration of US President Joe Biden, which is trying to revive the Iranian nuclear agreement that Washington withdrew from in 2018.
Tehran had defied US sanctions imposed on Caracas, and last year it sent oil tankers to Venezuela, which suffers from a shortage of oil derivatives.