伊朗警告称，如果巴西不允许两艘搁浅在该国海岸的伊朗船只加油，伊朗可能会削减从巴西的进口。此次国际争端涉及美国领导的孤立伊朗伊斯兰共和国在世界各地的活动。
在接受当地新闻媒体采访时，伊朗驻巴西大使赛义德·阿里·萨卡扬表示，在巴西国营石油公司巴西石油公司上周决定不向伊朗萨皮德船运公司供应燃料后，伊朗可能会找到新的玉米、大豆和肉类供应商巴伐利亚和Termeh使他们无法离开巴拉那瓜南部港口。该公司声称这样做可能违反美国对伊朗的制裁。
据伊朗半官方的法斯通讯社报道，萨卡扬在德黑兰驻巴西利亚大使馆接受采访时说:“我告诉巴西人，他们应该解决这个问题，而不是伊朗人。”。
“如果这个问题得不到解决，德黑兰当局可能会想做出一些决定，因为这是一个自由市场，其他国家也是可用的，”萨卡扬说。
7月19日，一艘装载着48，000吨玉米的伊朗船只巴旺停泊在巴西巴拉那瓜港。巴西国营石油公司巴西石油公司星期五通知说，由于担心违反美国的制裁，它不会向停泊在巴西南部数周的伊朗公司萨皮德航运公司的两艘船只——巴万德和特尔梅——提供燃料。
伊朗媒体报道说，目前至少有一艘船装载了玉米，但是纽约时报路透社报道称，船只装载尿素，尿素是一种常用于肥料的化合物。该化合物受到美国对伊朗的制裁，因为它也可以用来制造爆炸物。
由于船只被卡住，萨卡扬说，伊朗自己可能会被迫在一个昂贵而耗时的行动中输送燃料。
据半官方的梅尔通讯社报道，萨卡扬与巴西副总统汉密尔顿·莫朗进行了一次谈话，两人在谈话中称赞两国之间116年的关系有所改善，就在一个月后，这个问题出现了。文章报告称，2018年伊朗和巴西之间的贸易额为25亿美元，伊朗通过巴西从其他国家进口了价值约20亿美元的货物。
然而，在有报道称巴西国家石油公司不会为巴拉那瓜的两艘伊朗船只加油的一天后，巴西总统贾伊尔·博尔索纳罗表示他很重视他与唐纳德·特朗普总统的关系更多。
“有这个问题，美国单方面对伊朗实施了这些制裁。巴西公司已经被我们告知这种情况，并在那里面临风险，”博尔索纳罗周五在路透社援引的评论中告诉记者。“我尤其接近特朗普，他接待了我两次。它是世界第一大经济体，也是我们的第二大市场，现在巴西已经张开双臂进行交易和合作。”
巴西是美国和伊朗与中国、欧盟、法国、德国、俄罗斯和英国签署的2015年核协议的众多国际支持者之一，这些国家承诺给予德黑兰制裁，以换取遏制其核活动。然而，极右翼领导人波索纳罗的当选见证了一场戏剧性的亲美国转变。
巴西并不是该地区唯一一个与特朗普政府关系更密切的国家。
在美国国务卿麦克·庞贝访问和巴西拒绝为伊朗船只加油的报道同时做出的决定中，阿根廷宣布将按照美国的立场，将伊朗支持的黎巴嫩什叶派穆斯林真主党运动定为恐怖组织。该国指责该组织制造了1992年针对以色列大使馆的爆炸事件，造成29人死亡。关于该组织应对1994年造成89人死亡的犹太社区中心爆炸事件负责的指控在布宜诺斯艾利斯引起了激烈的争论。
“我认为这是一个指标，”庞贝在接受阿根廷媒体Infobae采访时谈到阿根廷总统毛里西奥·马克里的决定时说。“这就是我们今天来这里开展反恐工作的原因，这也是我访问阿根廷的目的:帮助整个地区消除来自许多方面的恐怖威胁，当然也包括来自伊朗的威胁。”
7月22日，伊朗半官方的塔斯尼姆通讯社在伊朗阿巴斯海岸分享了这些照片，伊朗革命卫队在照片中扣留了悬挂英国国旗的斯坦纳·埃米利奥油轮。这艘船被扣押的几周前，英国在直布罗陀海峡抓获了悬挂巴拿马国旗的伊朗格蕾丝1号超级油轮。
庞贝继续批评伊朗对委内瑞拉政府的支持在那里，美国试图推翻尼古拉斯·马杜罗总统，而支持反对派控制的国民议会领导人胡安·瓜伊多，他的伊朗对手在加拉加斯进行了一次拉丁美洲之旅。在那里，伊朗外交部长穆罕默德贾瓦德扎里夫在不结盟运动首脑会议上辩称，美国支持恐怖主义。不结盟运动是一个在美苏冷战期间寻求保持中立的国家集团。
“这是恐怖主义。毫无疑问，这很简单，”扎里夫周日说，并邀请听众用谷歌搜索恐怖主义的定义。“请朋友们，停止使用[的短语]制裁，制裁是一种强加合法秩序的手段，制裁有法律内涵，这是经济恐怖主义。我建议我们所有人谴责非法的、基本上无法无天的美国政府使用具有合法含义的术语。”
扎里夫接着访问了尼加拉瓜和玻利维亚，这两个国家支持委内瑞拉的马杜罗。这些国家与古巴一道，抵制了他们所认为的美国干预拉丁美洲左翼潮流的漫长历史的延续，其中大部分都站在瓜伊多一边。这位自称的领导人还得到欧盟等美国海外盟友的支持，而马杜罗的国际支持者还包括中国、俄罗斯土耳其和南非等。
尽管委内瑞拉的政治危机在很大程度上分裂了国际社会，但在这个南美国家放弃核协议和制裁伊朗的问题上，甚至许多支持瓜伊多的人都站在了美国一边。这些举措导致波斯湾的紧张局势加剧，伊朗最近扣留了一艘悬挂英国国旗的油轮，指控其危及海上交通。此前几周，英国扣押了一艘伊朗超级油轮，该油轮被控试图向叙利亚运输石油，明显违反了欧盟的制裁。
U.S. CAMPAIGN AGAINST IRAN IN LATIN AMERICA COMES TO BRAZIL
Iran has warned it may cut imports from Brazil if the country does not allow two Iranian ships stranded off its coast to refuel in one of many international disputes involving the U.S.-led campaign to isolate the Islamic Republic's reach across the world.
In an interview with local news outlets, Iranian ambassador to Brazil Seyed Ali Saqqayian said his country may find new suppliers of corn, soybeans and meat after state-run Brazilian oil company Petrobras' decision last week not to supply fuel to Iranian Sapid Shipping vessels Bavand and Termeh left them unable to leave the southern port of Paranaguá. The company claimed doing so could violate U.S. sanctions against Iran.
"I told the Brazilians that they should solve the issue, not the Iranians," Saqqayian said in an interview in Tehran's embassy in Brasilia, according to Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency.
"If it's not solved, maybe the authorities in Tehran may want to take some decision because this is a free market and other countries are available," Saqqayian said.
Iranian ship Bavand, loaded with 48,000 tons of corn, is seen anchored in the port of Paranagua, Brazil, July 19. Brazilian state-run oil company Petrobras informed Friday it won't supply fuel to two ships - Bavand and Termeh - of Iranian company Sapid Shipping, which have been anchored for weeks in southern Brazil, for fear of violating U.S. sanctions.
Iranian outlets have reported that at least one of the vessels is currently loaded with corn, but The New York Times and Reuters have reported that the ships are carrying urea, a compound commonly used in fertilizer. The compound is subject to U.S. sanctions on Iran as it could also be used to build explosives.
With the ships stuck, Saqqayian said Iran itself might be forced to send fuel in a costly and time-consuming operation.
The issue came only a month after Saqqayian met with Brazilian Vice President Hamilton Mourão for a conversation in which both men praised improvements in the 116-year-old relationship between their nations, according to the semi-official Mehr News Agency. The article reported that the trade volume between Iran and Brazil was $2.5 billion in 2018 and Iran imported some $2 billion worth of goods from other countries via Brazil.
A day after reports emerged that Petrobras would not be refueling the two Iranian ships in Paranaguá, however, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro indicated he valued his relationship with President Donald Trump more.
"There is this problem, the U.S. unilaterally imposed these sanctions on Iran. Brazilian companies have been informed by us about this situation and are running a risk there," Bolsonaro told reporters Friday in remarks cited by Reuters. "I, particularly, am getting close to Trump, I was received twice by him. It is the No. 1 economy in the world, our second-largest market, and now Brazil has its arms open to do deals and partnerships."
Brazil was among the many international supporters of the 2015 nuclear deal signed by the U.S. and Iran, alongside China, the European Union, France, Germany, Russia and the United Kingdom, promising Tehran sanctions relief in exchange for curbing its nuclear activities. The election of far-right leader Bolsonaro, however, has seen a dramatic pro-U.S. shift.
Brazil is not the only country in the region more closely aligning with the Trump administration.
In a decision that coincided with both a visit by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the reports of Brazil's refusal to refuel Iran's ships, Argentina announced it would designate the Iran-backed Lebanese Shiite Muslim Hezbollah movement as a terrorist organization, in line with the U.S. stance. The country blamed the group for a 1992 bombing that targeted the Israeli embassy, killing 29 people. Accusations that the group was responsible for the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center that killed 89 people have been a subject of intense debate within Buenos Aires.
"I think this is an indicator," Pompeo said of Argentine President Mauricio Macri's decision in an interview with Argentine outlet Infobae. "It's why we came here to work on counterterrorism today, was the purpose of my visit to Argentina: to help the whole region take down the threat of terror from a number of sources, but certainly from Iran."
Iran's Revolutionary Guards detain the U.K.-flagged Stena Impero oil tanker in these images shared July 22 by Iran's semi-official Tasnim News Agency, off the shores of Bandar Abbas, Iran. The ship's seizure came weeks after the U.K. captured Iran's Panamanian-flagged Grace 1 supertanker in the Strait of Gibraltar.
Pompeo went on to criticize Iran's support for the government in Venezuela, where the U.S. has attempted to oust President Nicolás Maduro in favor of opposition-controlled National Assembly leader Juan Guaidó, his Iranian counterpart conducted a rival Latin American tour kicking off right in Caracas. There, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif argued the U.S. is supporting terrorism at a summit of the Non-Aligned Movement, a grouping of nations that sought to remain neutral during the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.
"This is terrorism. Pure and simple no question about it," Zarif said Sunday, inviting listeners to Google the definition of terrorism. "Please friends, stop using [the phrase] sanctions, sanctions are a means of imposing a lawful order, sanctions have a legal connotation, this is economic terrorism. I suggest that all of us decry the unlawful, basically lawless U.S. government from using terminology that has lawful connotations."
Zarif went on to visit Nicaragua and Bolivia, two more nations backing Maduro in Venezuela. These countries, along with Cuba, have resisted what they view to be an extension of the United States' long history of intervening against leftist currents in Latin America, much of which has sided with Guaidó. The self-declared leader also received backing from U.S. allies abroad such as the EU, while Maduro's international supporters also included China, Russia, Turkey and South Africa, among others.
While Venezuela's political crisis has largely divided the international community, even many of those supporting Guaidó sided against the U.S. when it came to the South American country's abandonment of the nuclear deal and sanctions on Iran. These moves have led to a spike in tensions in the Persian Gulf, where Iran recently detained a U.K.-flagged oil tanker, accusing it of endangering maritime traffic weeks after the U.K. seized an Iranian supertanker charged with attempting to transport oil to Syria in an apparent violation of EU sanctions.
