Iran's foreign ministry spokesman on Monday warned that the Islamic Republic will react if the United States government makes any move against its tankers heading to Venezuela.
A couple months ago I wondered how the heck SOUTHCOM got ships and planes.
I guess now we know. The siren of financial salvation in Venezuela is likely to work out badly for Iran.
To be fair to the spokesman, going broke is technically a reaction.
UPDATE: Iran again warned America not to intercept their tankers while Venezuela said they'd escort the Iranian ships if the U.S. dares touch them:
A force of U.S. vessels, including Navy destroyers and other combat ships, patrol the Caribbean on what U.S. officials call a drug interdiction mission. Venezuelan officials paint them as a threat, but U.S. officials have not announced any plans to intercept the Iranian tankers.
My instinct is that Iran and Venezuela are so forward because they don't think we are planning to intercept the tankers.
Still, if we planned to do that, we wouldn't warn them. I imagine we could capture those tankers long before a Venezuelan warship could even find and reach the tankers.
UPDATE: The Iranian tankers are arriving in Venezuelan waters, suggesting the American threat was simply Iranian and Venezuelan propaganda to make them seem like they were standing up to American threats:
The first of five tankers carrying much-needed Iranian fuel and oil products entered Venezuelan waters on Saturday, a Venezuelan government official said.
"The ships of the sister Islamic Republic of Iran are in our exclusive economic zone," Venezuelan oil minister Tareck El Aissami wrote on Twitter after the arrival of the first tanker, named Fortune.
I suppose it would be okay to let Maduro/socialism-devastated Venezuela get some needed fuel simply as a humanitarian issue if we can interdict Venezuela's payment to Iran for the fuel.
