The United States has seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, where President Donald Trump has been threatening military action for the last several months.

Members of the Trump administration confirmed reports that the US coastguard led an operation to commandeer the vessel on Wednesday afternoon.

But few details have been released about the circumstances of the seizure.

“We’ve just seized a tanker off the coast of Venezuela – large tanker, very large, largest one ever seized, actually,” Trump said during an event at the White House. “And other things are happening. So you’ll be seeing that later, and you’ll be talking about that later with some other people.”

When faced with questions about the tanker at a round table with business leaders, Trump encouraged reporters to “follow the tanker” to find out more.

He also declined to identify the vessel’s owner. But, he added, “I assume we’re going to keep the oil.”

The Venezuelan government responded to the seizure, accusing the US of carrying out a “blatant theft”, which it described as an “act of international piracy, publicly announced by the President of the United States”.

Venezuela would “defend its sovereignty, natural resources, and national dignity with absolute determination”, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement, adding that it would also denounce the US before international bodies.

US Attorney General Pam Bondi posted on social media that the tanker had been seized for transporting “sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran”.

“For multiple years, the oil tanker has been sanctioned by the United States due to its involvement in an illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organizations,” she wrote.

Her post was accompanied by a video that showed US soldiers rappelling onto the tanker from military helicopters. Bondi explained that the Department of Defense, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Homeland Security cooperated with the coastguard on the operation.

The takeover of the oil tanker is likely to further inflame tensions with Venezuela, as Trump continues with his campaign of “maximum pressure” against the South American country.

[Aljazeera]