Move comes days after Trump announces ‘blockade’ of sanctioned oil tankers and US seizes tanker
US forces on Saturday stopped a second merchant vessel off the coast of Venezuela in international waters, according to two US officials, the Associated Press reported.
The move comes days after Donald Trump announced a “blockade” of all sanctioned oil tankers coming in to and out of the South American country and follows the seizure by US forces of an oil tanker off Venezuela’s coast on 10 December.
The officials were not authorized to discuss publicly the ongoing military operation and spoke on condition of anonymity, the AP said.
The development comes as Trump and his advisers have refused to rule out the potential for open conflict with Venezuela as its country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, has urged his navy to escort oil tankers, defying the largest US fleet deployed in the region in decades.
