Tehran, December 12 — Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Thursday accused the United States of pursuing “territorial expansionism” in parts of Latin America, framing the claim as part of a broader struggle he called resistance to foreign pressure. In a post on X, Khamenei wrote that “withstanding enemy pressures is Resistance,” and said such pressure can take many forms, from territorial aims to efforts to change cultural, religious or social identities. He singled out what he described as growing U.S. pressure across South America, including Venezuela.
The comments followed U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement that Washington had seized a large oil tanker off Venezuela’s coast. Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said the ship was “a large tanker, very large,” and called it the largest ever seized.
U.S. and media reports identified the vessel as the Skipper, formerly known as Adisa. CNN reported the tanker was carrying Venezuelan crude and had been sanctioned in 2022 for allegedly facilitating oil transactions for Hezbollah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps–Quds Force. U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi confirmed the seizure and said the ship was transporting “sanctioned oil.” Bondi wrote on X that the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations and the U.S. Coast Guard, with support from the Department of Defense, executed a seizure warrant and shared unclassified images of the operation. She said the tanker had been part of an illicit shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organizations and that investigations to stop sanctioned oil transport are ongoing.
CNN noted the seizure fits within a broader U.S. campaign to pressure Venezuela, which has included deploying troops and a carrier strike group to the Caribbean, targeting suspected drug-smuggling vessels and issuing repeated warnings to President Nicolás Maduro.
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