US forces have seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, in a major escalation of Donald Trump’s four-month pressure campaign against the South American country’s dictator, Nicolás Maduro.

  • Dr. Moose@lemmy.world
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    6 hours ago

    I hate trump as anyone else here but reading into this it looks like an absolutely legal and normal procedure?

    The ship in question named Skipper was already sanctioned since 2022 for transporting Iranian oil to fund Hezbolah. So minus conflict escalation with Venezuela this seems like a good thing? Hezbolah is an incredibly evil terrorist organization and cutting off it’s funding is good.

    • desertdruid@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      3 hours ago

      How it is legal to seize a ship from another country when it isn’t even close to your coast? Are you so brainwashed you can call this normal?

      • Dr. Moose@lemmy.world
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        2 hours ago

        I’m not a lawyer but afaik the sanctioned ships are treated kinda like “legal piracy” as country can board it even in international waters if it knows it’s performing a sanctioned operation like transferring goods to a place it’s not allowed to or the ship is stateless or sneaky (no transponder etc).

        At the end of the day these legalities are purely made up to satisfy treaties rather than ethics or rationality so it’s silly to try to look for rational meaning here.

    • radiofreebc@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      Sanctioned by the US. This means the ship is free to trade with other countries. It wasn’t heading to the US. This is an illegal act.

      • Dr. Moose@lemmy.world
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        3 hours ago

        That’s not how these types sanctions work though. It’s much more broad than “you can’t pass our waters” and it’s perfectly legal to board sanctioned ships in international waters.

        AFAIK this is legal though I care much more about ethics than legalities as citizen of neither of these countries.

    • Furbag@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      I’m not typically a betting man, but I would be willing to go all in on that not being the reason they seized the ship.

      This administration tends to do what comes natural to them first (do illegal shit) and then search for an excuse later for why it was necessary when confronted about it.

      I wouldn’t be surprised if they eventually came to the same conclusion that you did, but only after Trump or one of his stooges brags about doing it for other reasons.

      • Dr. Moose@lemmy.world
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        3 hours ago

        I feel like people are taking the bait here in siding with Iran and Hezbolah just to spite Trump. Both things can be bad and it’s kinda important to be woke to these games rather than blindly oppose everything.

        People keep underestimating Trump and his stooges. Sure they are stupid but they do have a plan and they do scheme.

    • rhamzeh@lemmy.ml
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      4 hours ago

      “Hezbolah is an incredibly evil terrorist organization”

      Based on? What metric are you using for this? Or do we kill people based on your genocidal white vibes?

      Or is it “that’s what I hear on CNN and Fox who tell me that Saddam’s WMD’s are about to be definitely foubd any second now?”