Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro is now seeking to strike oil deals with both Iran and Syria to help ease the pressure of the country’s worsening economic and humanitarian crisis, according to an announcement by Iran’s Research Institute of the Petroleum Industry.
The Maduro regime is currently in negotiations with both Iran and Syria to build an oil refinery in Syria, McClatchy reports this week. The refinery in question would reportedly have a daily output of 140,000 barrels per day in a move designed to bypass new sanctions imposed by the United States on Venezuelan oil exports in response to Maduro’s creation of a fraudulent lawmaking body known as the “national constituent assembly.”
The Trump administration has pummelled Venezuela with economic sanctions, which include a ban on Americans dealing in Venezuelan government debt or that of its state-run oil company, as well as personal sanctions against Maduro and other government officials.
Experts, therefore, remain skeptical about the feasibility of any project in the Middle East, given that President Donald Trump could block the import of any oil produced within the Syrian refinery through an executive order.
“We know how this playbook works,” a sanctions expert involved in deliberations inside the Trump administration told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “It’s not something we haven’t tried before. There are ways the U.S. can target this activity.”
Furthermore, Trump has repeatedly promised to increase pressure on the Venezuelan regime, and last month held a meeting with Latin American leaders on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, where he warned the U.S. was prepared to “take further action” to prevent the country’s collapse.
“At the worst, this is the ultimate ‘fake news’ and, at best, wishful thinking,” Russ Dallen, a managing partner at the investment bank Caracas Capital Markets, told McClatchy. “The financial aspects of it don’t make a lot of sense. There has got to be other incentives to make this a worthwhile project for Venezuela right now when it doesn’t have any cash.”
In their desperate search for cash, Venezuela last month also began negotiating a $500 million deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin whereby Russia will take control of a number of the country’s most profitable oil fields.
Meanwhile, Venezuela’s connections to both Iran and Syria are well documented. In August, CIA Director Mike Pompeo claimed that both Iran and their Islamist terrorist group Hezbollah both had an established presence in Venezuela, as well as Cuban and Russian agents.
Follow Ben Kew on Facebook, Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart.com.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.