Miami's US Senator Marco Rubio Leads Colleagues In Introducing Bill To Ban Oil Imports From Iran, Venezuela

MIAMI (CBSMiami) - Miami U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, along with other senators, has introduced a bill that would prohibit the importation of Iranian and Venezuelan crude oil, petroleum, petroleum products, and liquefied natural gas into the United States.

"The United States is blessed to have a plentiful supply of oil and natural gas — we should be using it," Rubio said. "The Biden Administration would rather appease dictatorships in Iran and Venezuela in return for bad deals and false promises. Under no circumstance should we be funneling money into the hands of dictators and narco-terrorists who are also allies of Vladimir Putin."

"We should not be reliant on brutal dictators to provide for our country's energy needs. It's national security suicide," said Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK). "It is insulting to working families that the Biden administration would rather enrich the despots in Iran and Venezuela. The President needs to quit begging these dictators for more oil and gas."

"The fact that Joe Biden is rumored to be negotiating with Venezuela for crude oil is so offensive," said Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND). "Even worse, he may be willing to give Iran, the world's largest sponsor of terror, billions of dollars a day by removing sanctions for their oil. It's hard to believe that we would trade one despot in Russia for two despots in Venezuela and Iran."

This past weekend, a US delegation traveled to Venezuela to meet with Nicolas Maduro, a little more than three years after the U.S. broke off relations with him and recognized opposition leader Juan Guaidó as Venezuela's legitimate president.

The talks came together after months of backchannel efforts by intermediaries — American lobbyists, Norwegian diplomats and international oil executives — who have been pushing for Biden to revisit the so far unsuccessful "maximum pressure" campaign to unseat Maduro that he inherited from the Trump administration.

But the impetus for the outreach to Maduro, who has been sanctioned and is indicted in New York on drug trafficking charges, took on added urgency following Russia's invasion of Ukraine and ensuing U.S. sanctions.

The Ukraine crisis promises to reshuffle global alliances and add to rising gas prices driving inflation already at a four-decade high.

Venezuela owes money to Russia and by buying oil from the South American nation, the United States would indirectly be benefitting Putin.