> "The government of Guyana — which borders Venezuela — said in a statement Wednesday the ship was falsely flying the Guyanese flag, despite not being registered in the South American country"
The US pressures countries to deregister ships on US sanctions lists. The ship had previously been registered in Panama.
It feels a little sketchy to force countries to deregister ships in order to seize them, but they could have flown Venezuela's flag instead of taking the risk of being stateless instead.
> "The government of Guyana — which borders Venezuela — said in a statement Wednesday the ship was falsely flying the Guyanese flag, despite not being registered in the South American country"
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-we-know-oil-tanker-the-ski...
(Context reminder: Guyana is the country Venezuela's Maduro threatened to invade in 2023).
(Also context: the sanctions on this ship's Russian owner date from 2022, and are about violating US sanctions on Iranian oil).