Iran Mocks Washington “Pirates Of The Caribbean” For Selling Seized Fuel For $40 Million

Not for the first time Iran has slammed the United States as “the pirates of the Caribbean” after the Department of Justice announcement late last week boasting that 1.1 million barrels in petroleum recently seized from four Iranian tankers bound for Venezuela were sold for $40 million.

The DOJ had alleged that Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) operatives were behind the clandestine shipments of fuel and weapons meant to circumvent sanctions. “We estimate that in excess of $40 million will be recouped by the United States related to the sale of petroleum from those four vessels,” acting US attorney for the District of Columbia Michael Sherwin the told reporters last week.

In response Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh tweeted: “The Pirates of the Caribbean openly boasting about their booty…” And he added: “No one civilized brags [about] stealing.”

Khatibzadeh attached the below headline images to the message while also claiming the fuel actually didn’t belong to Iran at the moment it was stolen.

“Only, as we said before: it wasn’t ours. But [somebody] else’s oil has certainly been stolen,” Khatibzadeh said further.

According to the AFP, the DOJ indicated much of the proceeds from the sale would go to a US fund for victims of “state-sponsored terrorism”. The report detailed:

US courts have ordered Iran’s clerical regime to pay damages over attacks, most recently in July when a judge told Tehran to pay $879.1 million over a 1996 bombing in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 US airmen.

Iran denies responsibility and states it has no intention of paying, saying the United States should instead compensate for past episodes including its support of Saddam Hussein in the Iran-Iraq War.

Meanwhile there’s no doubt that leaders in Tehran will be watching the US presidential election with bated breath hoping for a Joe Biden victory.

Biden has vowed to restore US participation in the 2015 nuclear deal brokered under the Obama-Biden administration, so long as Iran comes back into adhering to uranium enrichment caps and other conditions its recently broken in protest.

On the other hand the continuation of Trump and Pompeo’s ‘maximum pressure’ campaign could mean war would eventually be on the horizon, and a smashed Iranian economy for years given the unprecedented sanctions regimen.