Venezuela condemns U.S. oil tanker seizure as "piracy"

HotTV

Venezuela condemns U.S. oil tanker seizure as "piracy"

2025-12-13 03:42 Last Updated At：13:32

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Thursday condemned the United States' seizure of a giant oil tanker off the country's coast, calling the move "a blatant theft and an act of international piracy."

The sharp denunciation follows U.S. President Donald Trump's confirmation of the military action on Wednesday. He told reporters the vessel was "very large, the largest one ever seized," and justified it for a "very good reason." U.S. officials stated the tanker was involved in transporting sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday that the United States would take the oil tanker it seized on Wednesday near the coast of Venezuela to a U.S. port, and intends to confiscate the oil it carried.

Leavitt said the oil carried by the vessel was intended for delivery to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), an entity sanctioned by the United States. She added that the U.S. is conducting investigations in accordance with the law, including interviewing the crew and collecting evidence.

President Maduro said Venezuela would resort to legal and diplomatic measures to ensure that its oil could be sold worldwide.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Thursday criticized U.S. military operation in the Caribbean Sea, calling the seizure of the oil tanker an act of piracy.

He said that the U.S. act is aimed at seeking control over oil resources rather than combating drug trafficking, warning that the situation in the region could escalate.

On the same day, the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) issued a statement, condemning in the strongest terms the act of blatant piracy perpetrated by the government of the United States in illegally seizing and confiscating a Venezuelan oil tanker in the Caribbean Sea, saying that this act constitutes a grave violation of International Law and a direct attack on the sovereignty of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

The statement said this act reveals a strategy of plunder aimed at taking control of Venezuela's energy resources, setting an extremely dangerous precedent for international legal and maritime stability. ALBA firmly rejects this imperial aggression and reaffirms its full support for the people and government of Venezuela.

The alliance demands the immediate return of the vessel and the cessation of all actions to seize Venezuelan property, urging multilateral, regional, and global organizations to urgently speak out against this blatant violation of international law, according to the statement.

Attempts to stop China's sci-tech development doomed to fail: former Singaporean diplomat

Attempts to curb China's scientific and technological advancement are futile, a fact that has already been proven, said Kishore Mahbubani, former permanent representative of Singapore to the United Nations, in an interview aired Friday.

In an exclusive interview with China Central Television (CCTV) in Beijing, Mahbubani said he had stated this position in one of his articles published in the United States.

"Actually, I published an article, you know the two, I guess two leading journals in the United States on international relations. One is Foreign Affairs and the other is Foreign Policy. And last year I co-authored an article with two other co-authors, saying that all the efforts to stop China's scientific and technological development will fail. And it has failed always. You know, for example, the Soviet Union tried to prevent the spread of nuclear technology to China, China develops its own. The United States didn't want to share its technology on international space station with China. China develops its own space station. So clearly, efforts to stop China in the area of scientific innovation and technological development have failed. And so it'd be wiser for the West, including United States, to work with China other than to try and stop China seek development," he said.

Regarding China's progress on robots, Mahbubani said China is leading the world in the sector and hopes the country will share its expertise with the rest of the world.

"If there's one country that is preparing for the future well, it is China, because one in six human beings in the world is Chinese. But one in three robots in the world is Chinese, and one in two baby robots being born every day is Chinese. So China is producing far more robots than any other country is. So clearly it's preparing for the world of the future when we will have, for example, labor shortages, as you know, as you develop an aging society. So China is wisely investing in robots. But I hope that China will also share its learning and expertise with other countries. Also because the robots like that can also be helpful even to developing countries cause you can enhance the productivity of their populations, of their factories and so on so forth. So the world should be happy that China is leading the world in manufacturing, producing robots," he said.