Iran has made headlines over the past week after successfully shipping multiple fuel tankers to Venezuela, where fuel shortages have spread throughout the country. The move has raised concerns in the United States and throughout the Western Hemisphere regarding a strengthening alliance between two nations that have consistently harbored anti-U.S. sentiment.

In sending these tankers, Iran defied the U.S. maximum pressure campaign to oust the Maduro regime and restore democracy in Venezuela. While worrisome, this act of defiance has perhaps received an outsized response for what amounts to a relatively unexceptional gesture in the grand scheme of Iran-Venezuela relations.

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Read the full report at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.