The first of five Iranian oil tankers heading to Venezuela to help ease fuel shortages entered the country's waters, encountering no immediate signs of US interference amid a diplomatic standoff, EDNews.net reports citing Aljazeera.
Amid heightened tensions over what Venezuelan authorities described as threats from the United States, the oil vessel Fortune officially entered Venezuela's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) at about 7:30pm local time (11:30 GMT) on Saturday, according to the shipping tracker TankerTracker.
"The first Iranian tanker reached the Venezuelan coasts," the Iranian embassy in Venezuela said in a Twitter post. "Grateful to the Bolivarian Armed Forces for escorting them."