A Group of Republican and Democratic Senators Calls for the Seizure of Iran's Confiscated Oil

A group of 12 Republican and Democratic senators on Thursday sent a letter to President Joe Biden, urging him to authorize the seizure of Iran's confiscated oil and gas shipments. According to Reuters, the senators noted in their letter that despite more than a year having passed since the confiscation, the research division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has been unable to seize Iran's oil and gas shipments due to restrictions from the Treasury Department's executive office. The Persian section of Voice of America has sought the opinions of two signatories of this letter, Republican Senator Joni Ernst and Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, and will publish their responses as soon as they are received. The letter states that by activating the executive program of the research division of the Department of Homeland Security in 2019, the U.S. has seized the equivalent of $228 million worth of Iranian crude oil and fuel from the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Last month, the Iranian oil minister announced that Iran's oil exports have reached their highest level since the U.S. withdrew from the JCPOA in 2018. According to him, Iran exported 83 million barrels more oil last year than the previous year. Iran has unloaded a shipment of 700,000 barrels of oil in Syria, and the Iranian tanker confiscated in Greece is 'being reloaded.' Iran has seized two Greek tankers in the Persian Gulf and summoned the Swiss chargé d'affaires in Tehran to protest the seizure of Iranian oil by the U.S.