The Washington Post:

U.S. authorities have moved to seize the cargo of four oil tankers carrying gasoline and fuel products from Iran to Venezuela, escalating a sanctions battle with two regimes Washington opposes and a contest over Iranian oil shipments that allegedly finance its nuclear program.

The action comes weeks after Iran sent five tankers and 1.5 million barrels of gasoline in a symbolic gesture of support to embattled Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in defiance of the Trump administration.

A U.S. judge in Washington signed a seizure warrant Thursday for Venezuela-bound shipments aboard four other tankers — the Bella, Bering, Pandi and Luna — whose deliveries were disrupted. Prosecutors estimated their cargo included 1.2 million barrels of gasoline worth nearly $50 million — the seizure of which would be a blow the U.S. government aimed at Iran’s use of third-party shippers to avert economic penalties.

In a civil forfeiture lawsuit and statement filed late Wednesday, U.S. officials in Washington cited a network of informants indicating the fuel was “a source of influence” for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which the United States has designated a terrorist organization. Prosecutors claimed the movements were arranged by Mahmoud Madanipour, an Iran-based man affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard.

Madanipour purportedly acted on behalf of Mobin International Ltd., a firm associated with Guard Corps-connected bank accounts, prosecutors said. Madanipour and the firm also are associated with a United Arab Emirates trading company that the suit did not name that moved to conceal the shipments’ Iranian origin, prosecutors and Homeland Security Investigations agents said.

A text message between Madanipour and a co-conspirator noted difficulties in the voyage of the Liberian-flagged Bella and the Bering, after the United States threatened the Greek owners with possible sanctions, court filings state.

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