Following its sanctions program last year, the United States managed to sell more than a million barrels of seized Iranian fuel, as Reuters reported.
Namely, the seizures are part of Washington’s tough economic sanctions on Tehran imposed over its nuclear program and the U.S. designation of a number of Iranian groups as terrorists, continuing decades of rancor between the two nations. Iran rejects U.S. accusations of wrongdoing.
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In fact, the administration of former U.S. President Donald Trump used civil forfeiture procedures to seize some 1.2 million barrels of gasoline it said were being sent from Iran to Venezuela aboard four tankers.
In light of the situation, the shipments, the largest seizure by Washington of Iranian fuel to date, were transferred to other vessels and sent to the United States, where the fuel was meant to be sold and the proceeds distributed to a fund for U.S. victims of state-sponsored terrorism.
To remind, last week, the United States filed a lawsuit to seize another cargo, this one of crude oil it says came from Iran, rather than Iraq.
Specifically, on 3 February 2021, the United States filed a forfeiture complaint in the U.S. District Court alleging that all oil aboard a Liberian-flagged vessel, called M/T Achilleas, is subject to forfeiture based on U.S. terrorism forfeiture laws.
