Fuel that has been recently seized by the United States belonged to Venezuela, not Iran, Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said on Tuesday.
"Neither the vessels nor the cargo belongs to Iran. The cargo included gasoline that was sold by Iran to Venezuela. The US seized not the property of Iran, but the property of Venezuela," the minister said, as quoted by the IRIB broadcaster.
On Friday, the US announced that it had confiscated "a multimillion-dollar fuel shipment" by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from four Venezuela-bound tankers.
The US did not specify when "the largest-ever seizure of fuel shipments from Iran" had taken place.
Iran’s Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, has refuted allegations, saying that the vessels involved in what he described as an act of “piracy” were not Iran-flagged and the fuel onboard belonged to Tehran.
President Hassan Rouhani earlier said that the US claims were meant to cover up the "shame and humiliation" from the defeat of its UN Security Council resolution on extending arms embargo on Iran.
