Iran launches its first home built oil tanker

July 24th, 2012

FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, whose stridently anti-Washington politics
are popular at home, has expanded ties with Iran as pressure on Tehran has
grown over the Islamic Republic’s disputed nuclear programme. Iran denies
Western charges that it is seeking to build nuclear weapons.

Despite the closer ties between Caracas and Tehran, an EU ban on Iranian oil
and insurance has hurt the OPEC producer’s ability to sell its crude, while
a prohibition on EU ship insurance provision has targeted the transport of
oil.

Iran’s top commercial tanker operator NITC has delayed the expansion of its
oil fleet, company and industry sources said last month, as Western
sanctions and a weak freight market hurt its ability to turn a profit.

Growing pressure by an influential US lobby group has also led to top ship
classifiers no longer verifying safety and environmental standards for
Iran’s biggest shipping firms.

Without verification from such bodies, ships are unable to call at
international ports in another blow that Tehran has to deal with.

Source: Reuters