Hxen.com's tips：Every day persisted can learn English well!-->■Learn English Everyday■
Our first story this Wednesday examines how oil tankers are functioning like chess pieces in global strains involving the United States and the Middle Eastern nation of Iran. Last year, the Trump Administration pulled the U.S. out of a controversial nuclear deal concerning Iran. The international agreement had been made in 2015 under the Obama Administration. And while its supporters said it would put a pause on Iran's efforts to build a nuclear weapon, its critics said it didn't go far enough to stop Iran's nuclear ambitions.
Before the deal was made, the U.S. had sanctions in place, penalties on Iran that hurt the Middle Eastern nation's economy. When the U.S. left the deal last year, those sanctions were put back in place, and they're once again taking a toll on Iran. The two countries have been threatening each other since then. One of the latest incidents involved an Iranian oil tanker that was seized in Gibraltar last month. This is a British territory in southern Spain. Authorities stopped the Iranian ship because they thought its cargo was headed somewhere illegal under European rules. Iran said it wasn't. And two weeks after its ship was seized, Iran stopped a British flagged tanker that it says was sailing the wrong route in the Middle East.
Iran's government says this had no connection to Gibraltar, but international observers think it was an act of revenge. Earlier this week, Gibraltar released the Iranian ship after Iran and the owners of the ship's oil promised it wouldn't be taken anywhere it wasn't supposed to go. But the U.S. stepped in and tried to block the ship from sailing. The American government says it believes the ship was helping Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, part of Iran's government that the U.S. has labeled a foreign terrorist organization. European leaders haven't labeled the Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist group, so they went ahead and let it go.
