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Most modern cars know their locations better than their owners do. As suites of connected-car apps become mainstream for both emergency functionality (such as General Motors' OnStar) or for owner conveniences such as remote start or parking guidance, new vehicles are overflowing with data needed to support always-on connectivity.

While most owner concerns (and popular attention) have been fixed on unallowed hacks into such systems by bad actors, there are still massive troves of automatically generated data open to anyone with the knowledge to access it, and even the "proper" use of this data can be a risk to consumers who seek privacy. Your home, your work, every trip you've taken no matter how private: it all can be seen by companies, countries, and individuals you've never given permission to follow your travels, and completely legally.

Struggling to think of a need for privacy besides what's already been extensively reported and debated? One recent example: As certain states attempt to make previously legal medical care (such as abortion, contraception, and basic trans-related medication and care) illegal to access, the modern connected car and its troves of data have the potential to become a governments unintentional best friend and a driver's worst enemy as prosecution intensifies. Even if you're not immediately affected by your car tracking your habits, state law has been changing increasingly rapidlyfamilies in Texas found their access to trans care restricted within a week of the governor's directive to eliminate itand you may find yourself criminalized a week from now unexpectedly over some other arbitrary decision.

The good news is there's already proposed legislation to combat the current freewheeling fate of our privacy. The bad news is we don't know how long that legislation will take to pass, if it does at all.

To understand how driving a car could incriminate someone, its worth examining just what kind of data the car itself collects and transmits.

In 2021, 90 percent of cars sold in the United Statesand around 130 million total cars sold worldwidecontained some form of embedded connectivity. This built-in connectivity can take many forms (built-in Wi-Fi connectivity, infotainment systems that connect to cellular networks, and even Bluetooth systems) but all of them share a few things in common: They collect (and transmit) massive amounts of data, they are usually truly embedded in the physical car (and comprise some core functionality of it), and owners rarely have control of where it ends up. This trove of data is known as telematics, and its a multi-billion-dollar industry with wide-reaching implications for consumers.

Most consumers never have an inkling of just how powerfuland plentifulthis telemetry data is. The raw amount of information itself is overwhelming to consider; a case study by the Washington Post on a 2018 Chevrolet Volt showed that the car generated up to 25 gigabytes per hour of data across every category imaginable; for context, browsing Instagram for an hour uses a mere 720 megabytes. This deluge of data the Volt created included location specifics, even when the GPS was not being actively used by the driver. In the case of the Chevy that was studied, researchers even bought a used Volt navigation system on eBay and were able to construct the previous owners daily life and routine down to their home, workplace, and oft-frequented gas station, simply by poring through stored location data that the infotainment system automatically logged.

An earlier study from 2017, undertaken by a student at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, pulled similar location data from a variety of late-model vehicles infotainment systems that logged exact coordinates even when the GPS was not engaged. In certain versions of Fords Sync infotainment system installed in mid-2010s-era Fords, the researcher found that vehicle and system generated events also generated GPS coordinates which can further be used to prove the vehicle users exact location at specific times (for e.g. when the vehicle shifts gear and vehicle doors are opened/closed, GPS coordinates are generated).

An example demonstration log in the study, pulled from a 2013 Ford F-150, shows GPS coordinates being stored when opening or closing a car door. With this frequency and precision, its easy to retrace exactly where that truck has been.

But it's not just the data inside your infotainment system that's a concern. All of the data discussed abovethe GPS coordinates of every gear change, the location of every ECU bootis not just stored onboard the car itself, but is frequently sent back to an automaker for storage and analysis.

This massive dataset has extremely advantageous, non-invasive uses for a host of businesses, including the automakers and drivers themselves. Telematics can help professional drivers spot and avoid traffic by analyzing previous patterns; urban planners can use similar data to identify roads prone to jams and create more efficient streets; insurance companies can use it to spot fraud or dangerous driving habits; and manufacturers or fleet owners can identify potential malfunctions to repair (if engines report misfires or check engine lights after driving at high altitudes, for example).

All of this is possible thanks to OEMs sharing these troves of telematics data with other companies, which then provide their own unique analyses. One example of a company like this is Otonomowhich, according to internal presentations shown to investors, is partnered with nearly a dozen automakers including Kia, BMW, Ford, Toyota, Stellantis, GM, and even heavy equipment manufacturer Bobcat. Otonomo offers an array of services all underpinned by its large collection of automobile data to a variety of consumers, which include tech behemoths Amazon and Microsoft, smart-city planners such as BeMobile, and parts manufacturers such as Hella and Continental.

Yet, with this billion-dollar business comes massive privacy implications. Even in massive data sets comprised of millions of different peoples' locations, all of whom are theoretically anonymous, identifying any one person out of those millions is a simple job without a strict concern for data privacy. In a 2019 feature story, The New York Times studied the difficulty of anonymizing location data as it relates to phones, and discovered individuals identities with ease in supposedly anonymous data sets containing timestamped locations of cell phones. Connected cars face the same issues that anonymization cell phones suffer from because the underlying premise of location tracking is that it is deeply difficult to anonymize, especially when the device in question travels with a person to their work and home.

How hard could it really be to anonymize this data? Well, a 2013 study published in Nature showed that four spatio-temporal [GPS locations with a timestamp] points are enough to uniquely identify 95 percent of the individuals," even while using a dataset of 1.5 million people. That is, even with millions of generic data points without a name attached to them, having four from a single person is enough to identify one of them. The only way the researchers found to add back any privacy to users that were anonymously tracked was to coarsen both location and timestamp data: making it less accurate by reducing the accuracy of location logging and giving wider time ranges for each timestamp. This, of course, reduces the usefulness of that data.

But companies have very little incentive to reduce the usefulness of location data because often its specificity is what makes it so valuable. McKinsey, a business strategy group, estimates the telematics data market will be worth a staggering $750 billion dollars by the time the decade is out. The best way to get a share of that lucrative market is with accurate data so that advertisers, police states, and corporations can get the most use from it.

Thats not to say some companies dont try to protect consumer privacy; Otonomo specifically employs what it calls data blurring," which ideally hides the privacy of drivers in compliance with European GDPR laws while still offering useful data for its customers. Otonomo acknowledged a request for comment from The Drive regarding how its data blurring works but was unable to provide technical details on what exact steps it takes for anonymity.

But there are no laws in the U.S. requiring that manufacturers anonymize any of the telematics they collect, and some third-party companies sell services explicitly offering to track specific, targeted vehicles. Not only can this be used by less-than-scrupulous buyers, but previous court precedent in the U.S. allows for federal agencies to buy location datasets to sift through personally identifiable data that would otherwise require a warrant.

With this in mind, The Drive reached out to four auto manufacturersFord, Honda, Kia, and BMWthat all offer modern connected-car functionality in many of their models, and whose privacy policies for use of their vehicles leave the possibility of third-party sale of telematics open. I asked, specifically, what their policies were on third-party data sale and sharing and, if they do share telematics with outside companies, how easily consumers can opt out of it at will.

Ford declined to comment. BMW acknowledged the request but did not provide any details on its data practices in time for publication.Honda referred to its privacy policy and owners manual disclosures for information regarding its telematics policies. In the policy, Honda noted that it can collect trip log information, including trip start time and end time, trip start and end location and that this information can be shared with third parties. The document also noted that this data is generated and transmitted automatically regardless of whether drivers use connected technologies such as HondaLink, although, in the past, the company has declined to track unsubscribed cars without a warrant.

Kia had a stronger approach to data protection. In a statement to The Drive, the company stated that Kia America collects geolocation data only on consumer-owned vehicles in the United States that are equipped with connected vehicle technology and have been enrolled by the owner in our Kia Connect service. Furthermore, the automaker noted,[Kia America] does not aggregate vehicle geolocation data, nor do we sell such data to third parties. While affiliated global Kia companies may have a working relationship with Otonomo, [Kia America] does not share vehicle data with that company. The company said that the only time that geolocation data is shared with law enforcement is when presented with a valid court order or warrant, or if an owner consents to share it during an active vehicle-theft investigation.

Separately, a Genesis representative assured us in another story that the biometric data the GV70 can collect for the SUV's fingerprint unlock and startup capabilities stays with the car itself and does not get shared with the company.

With this level of data on hand, few safeguards legislatively in place, and a very scattered set of privacy policies that can vary widely by manufacturer, the potential for a car to betray a persons privacy in a newly fraught legal landscape is clear. For example, there are already states that have not just banned care but also made it legally questionable to travel to another state for it, with Texass anti-abortion and anti-trans-care laws being the most obvious.

The states anti-abortion law weaponizes civil courts against anyone suspected of assisting in abortion (including, for example, driving someone out of state to a clinic where abortions are legal to obtain). Its anti-trans-care laws are somewhat differently formatted, but they allow state Child Protective Services to investigate any parents suspected of confirming their childs gender identity, which includes driving out-of-state to clinics where puberty blockers or trans-specific therapy are offered to minors. Idaho recently attempted to pass a similar bill punishing parents with up to life in prison for traveling out-of-state to get their children trans-related care; the bill died in the state Senate, but lawmakers indicated that they would be willing to pass a more narrowly targeted bill in the future.

With the troves of data offered by patients cars, however, theres a very clear risk, as what was once considered basic medical care becomes criminalized. Even assuming every other step for data privacy is takensuch as not traveling with a cell phone and avoiding digital communication while seeking carehaving a car automatically log that its doors were opened at an out-of-state Planned Parenthood could be enough to potentially be enough to warrant investigation, civil lawsuits, or even criminal proceedings. To make matters worse, data like this is already out there in the open on the public market, specifically targeting people who've been to clinics such as Planned Parenthood. Poland, for example, is strictly anti-abortion and recently created a registry to track every person who becomes pregnant and seeks any care. The location data for every pregnancy clinic a patient has visited would be a valuable addition to those lists.

Even more shockingly, accessing this data does not require a warrant. The techniques discussed above have already been put into practice by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, which has been deemed exempt from needing a warrant to search digital devices in general at the border. Thanks to a loophole in the Fourth Amendment (the amendment that prohibits unreasonable search and seizures), state police can also download telematics data during routine police stops if they feel the need to, which means that a traffic stop could quickly become an examination of every place a driver has been for weeks.

However, this still relies on direct access to the car in question, which means that for such searches of telematics to be effective, state action would need to be targeted at specific, already-on-the-radar individuals such as activists and doctors (or used against already marginalized groups who are more frequently pulled over). But what if a police agency could just browse through everywhere cars have been, looking for interesting patterns, and tying back specific locations to individuals?

While Kias approach is much more likely to protect drivers privacy, the patchwork manufacturer-driven state of vehicle security means that while a Sorento may be able to glide under the radar, other vehicles may not. The easiest solution to unify the current state of driver privacy would likely come from the top downthat is, closing the Fourth Amendments loophole allowing vehicle telematics to be accessed without a warrant. While there is proposed bipartisan legislation that would do just that and prohibit warrantless vehicle surveillance by U.S. authorities, it hasnt been voted on since its introduction late last year.

In the meantime, I spoke with Mary Stone Ross, the chief privacy officer at the privacy-focused technology firm OSOM and a former employee of the CIA, for thoughts on how consumers could protect themselves. Unfortunately, despite her familiarity with the issue, there wasn't much comfort to be offered.

"I saw how powerful information was from a government perspective [at the CIA], where there actually was quite a bit of oversight and regulation. And then, what these companies had was so much more intrusive and they could do whatever they want," she explained. While she noted that she worked on California's data privacy law, the CCPA, in the pastwhich is currently the strongest privacy law in the nationshe also pointed out that most companies can still do what they want with personal data as long as any use of it has been disclosed in the fine print of a privacy policy.

Even then, it's still better than living elsewhere, as "all of the laws that you've seen passed by [other] states are so much weaker," Ross went on. "And then, there's been really no movement on the federal level... The tech companies are spending so much money, and any sort of privacy regulation they see as an existential threat to their business model, whether it is or isn't."

When I asked if there's anything consumers can do to protect themselves in the absence of strong federal law, she said, "I don't even know what my advice is [to consumers], because even with the rental cars, without safeguards on consumer data at the manufacturer level, its a free-for-all." Yet, in a world where privacy is likely to rapidly go from an afterthought to a central legal battle, her hope is still "that it actually puts pressure on Congress to pass federal privacy laws."

Until legislation is passed, then, consumers should be aware that their car could be an incredible weak point for their personal safety and privacy. If you can, perhaps stick with the ancient beaters, whose most advanced technology is fuel injection.

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Originally posted here:
Your Car Is Tracking You Just as Much as Your Smartphone Isand Your Data Is at Risk - The Drive

A flare-up in tensions between the UN nuclear monitor and Iran this week has left US President Joe Biden in an increasingly tight jam.

The US leader opened his presidency with a pledge to return to the 2015 international agreement that aimed to prevent Tehran from building nuclear weapons, after predecessor Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from it.

Negotiations to restore that agreement have been at an impasse for three months over the very last details.

Without a deal -- and Iran ever closer to nuclear "breakout" -- Biden has a tough choice: tomake more concessions to Tehran, and be accused of weakness by Republican opponents ahead of midterm elections, or declare the talks dead, which could spark a new Middle East crisis.

Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Thursday that Tehran's removal this week of 27 cameras monitoring its nuclear sites could deal a "fatal blow" to negotiations.

"At this stage, things can go either way," said Ali Vaez of the International Crisis Group. "The tension of the past few days could potentially stir leadership in Tehran and Washington to take the deal that is on the table."

Or, he said, "It's the first step in another cycle of escalation, and from this point on it would only get worse."

"Worse" could mean Tehran moving ahead to build a nuclear weapon, and its opponents like Israel and US hardliners demanding hard action to prevent that.

The talks in Vienna between Iran and the major powers resumed last year at Biden's impetus, with the US willing to rescind sanctions in exchange for Tehran returning to full implementation of the 2015 JointComprehensivePlan of Action (JCPOA).

But at the edge of a deal three months ago, the talks stalled, due -- according to US officials -- to final demands by Iran unrelated to nuclear issues.

Meanwhile, officials say, Iran has pushed ahead with uranium enrichment operations that take it close to a weapons capability.

Story continues

The situation deteriorated this week when members of the IAEA censuredIran for not cooperating. A day later Iran removed the 27 cameras.

Supporters say the deal is the only thing that has prevented Iran from building nuclear weapons, and that saving it is worth Biden giving Tehran some concessions.

But opponents -- Republicans, and strong supporters of Iran's nemesis Israel -- say Iran's lack of cooperation shows the agreement is not worth pursuing.

If Tehran's accelerated uranium enrichment operations "are not sufficient to get the Biden administration to change course, what will?" asked Behnam Ben Taleblu of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think-tank, which has opposed the JCPOA.

"The time has come for a multilateral version of maximum pressure," he said, referring to Trump's approach.

Even among Biden's Democratic Party, some voices are growing impatient.

"At what point will the administration acknowledge that Iran's nuclear advances make a return to the 2015 JCPOA not in the United States' strategic interest?" said Senator Bob Menendez.

Vaez says that the Biden administration has settled into the situation of having neither an agreement nor a crisis over it.

"The developments of the past 48 hours have basically demonstrated to both sides that the status quo in the past three months of no deal, no crisis is really not sustainable," said Vaez.

Yet Washington hasn't set a deadline. On Thursday Secretary of State Antony Blinken only warned that the removal of the monitoring cameras threatened JCPOA restoration.

"The only outcome of such a path will be a deepening nuclear crisis and further economic and political isolation for Iran," Blinken said.

Instead of a hard line, the top US diplomat kept the door open.

Returning to the deal "would still achieve our most important and urgent nonproliferation goals and would be strongly in our national security interests," said a Blinken spokesperson.

Randa Slim, a researcher at the Middle East Institute in Washington, called the impasse a state of limbo "whereby everybody will assume that the Vienna talks have collapsed, but nobody will be willing to announce it."

That is Biden's dilemma, she said.

If they declare the talks over and conclude that Iran has imminent nuclear weapons capability, Washington could be forced into taking direct action against Iran, or supporting such action by Israel, said Slim.

"There are two clocks ticking .... putting a lot of pressure on the Biden administration," said Vaez.

One is the clock on Tehran's actual nuclear technology advances, he said.

"And then there's the political clock," of the congressional elections in November that could deeply erode Biden's political clout.

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Originally posted here:
Iran's nuclear tactics leaves Biden with tough choices

Tehran, Iran Two men working in Irans aerospace industry have died in separate incidents while on active duty, according to Iranian state media.

The elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) branch in Markazi province announced in a statement carried by Iranian media late on Sunday that Ali Kamani, a member of the IRGCs aerospace division working in Khomein, some 320km (200 miles) south of the capital Tehran, was killed in a driving accident while on an unspecified mission.

Then, early on Monday, the semi-official Fars news website, affiliated with the IRGC, reported that another aerospace worker, a 33-year-old called Mohammad Abdous, had also died while on mission.

Irans defence ministry later said that Abdous worked for the ministry.

The labelling of both deaths as martyrdoms possibly indicates that the Iran believes the men to have been killed.

No details of Abdous death were published, other than that he passed away on Sunday in the northern province of Semnan.

Kamani and Abdous are the latest in a string of mysterious deaths that have occurred in the past few weeks.

One of them, an IRGC Quds Force colonel, Ali Esmaeilzadeh, was reported by state media to have died in an accident earlier this month.

The semi-official Tasnim news agency, which is close to the IRGC, rejected claims by a London-based Iranian opposition television channel that Esmaeilzadeh was eliminated by the IRGC over suspicion of involvement in the May 22 assassination of another colonel.

Tasnim described the claim as psychological war and news fabrication and said he fell from the unsecured balcony of his home.

On May 31, an aerospace engineer called Ayoob Entezari died under suspicious circumstances. Israeli media, which claimed Entezari had worked on Irans missile and drone programmes, said he had been poisoned at a dinner party, and that the host had fled the country.

But the judiciary in Yazd, where he died, called the 35-year-old Entezari an ordinary employee at an industrial company who died from an unspecified illness at a hospital and had nothing to do with the IRGC.

Prior to that case, on May 26, Irans defence ministry confirmed that an engineer, Ehsan Ghadbeigi, had been martyred and that another person was injured after an accident occurred at the Parchin military complex near Tehran. The New York Times reported at the time that Ghadbeigi had been killed in a suspected Israeli drone attack.

The most high-profile case in the last few weeks came on May 22, when Quds Force Colonel Hassan Khodaei was assassinated shot five times by two motorcyclists as he returned home in Tehran. He was described as a defender of the shrine a term used to describe anyone who works on behalf of Iran in Syria.

The commander-in-chief of the IRGC, Hossein Salami, publicly blamed Israel for assassinating Khodaei, and manytop officials have vowed revenge.

Khodaeis killing was the most high-profile assassination on Iranian soil since the November 2020 murder of top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.

Iran has blamed the assassination of Fakhrizadeh, and several sabotage attacks on its nuclear and military sites, on Israel, which is also thought to have been behind several other assassinations of nuclear scientists inside Iran in the past decade.

The other recent deaths, however, have not been officially confirmed as killings by Iran, and have also not publicly been linked to Israel.

But tensions between the two archenemies have significantly escalated in the past few months as Israel continues to warn that Iran is advancing towards building a nuclear bomb and that it reserves the right to take measuresto thwart it.

Iran says its nuclear programme is strictly peaceful.

The Israelis also appear to be stepping up their attacks on Iranian interests in Syria, where Tehran has militarily backed President Bashar al-Assads government in the countrys civil war.

On Friday, Israel was blamed for a missile attack at the Damascus International Airport in Syria that caused heavy damage in an attack suspected of being aimed at Iranian interests in the area.

The attacks come as the chances of restoring Irans 2015 nuclear deal with world powers have decreased in recent months as negotiations with the United States which unilaterally abandoned the deal in 2018 have stalled.

Iran has also conducted its own anti-Israel operations. The most high-profile Iranian hit on an alleged Israeli target came in mid-March when the IRGC launched ballistic missiles at a site in Erbil in northern Iraqs Kurdish region, which it said was operated by Israels Mossad spy agency.

The IRGC also shelled an area in Erbillast month that it said was held by terrorist groups.

Iranian medias focus on some other incidents is also cited by some as a potential indication of Tehrans involvement.

In recent weeks, Iranian media outlets have covered several fires that have broken out in Israel, without assigning responsibility to any group.

They also extensively covered a drone attack in Erbil last week, when some reports indicated that a Mossad operative was targeted in a vehicle. Israeli media mocked the drone attack, saying no Mossad operative was at the scene.

The rest is here:
Two Iranian aerospace staff martyred: State media - Al Jazeera English

As protests in Iran spread to Tehran on Sunday and continued on Monday, criticism of the government's economic and foreign policies intensified in the media.

Mehdi Pazouki, one of the Iranian economists who had warned President Ebrahim Raisi on Saturday that the underlying cause of the ongoing crisis is bad governance, and warned Raisi to introduce deep changes or wait for further chaos, said in an interview with Didban Iran website that his administration is the weakest government in Iran's history.

Pazouki criticized Raisi for forming a government by choosing his ministers and aides from among the members of a certain clan, such as appointing a politician [Ali Bagheri Kani] as Iran's chief nuclear negotiator who has always been against a nuclear agreement with the West. He also argued that Raisi has no economic program for the country although he had claimed during his election campaign to have a 7,000-page plan.

Like many other critics, Pazouki also maintained that Raisi's cabinet continues to blame the previous government for the country's problems to cover up its own inefficiency. Mentioning examples from the performance of Labor Minister Hojjat Abdolmaleki, Pazouki said that the minister's counter-productive performance in the area of wages and pensions has led to more unemployment and dissent.

Giving key jobs to non-experts, failing to prevent the effective devaluation of the national currency, being unable to do anything about rising food prices and wasting hefty budgets on useless organizations such as The Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution are among the other negative points of the Raisi administration, Pazouki added.

Retirees protest in Zanjan on Monday, June 12, 2022

Meanwhile, former vice president Mostafa Hashemi Taba told reporters that the country's situation is getting worse on a daily basis, adding that it was evident from day one that Raisi was not able to stand by the promises he made during his election campaign. Hashemi Taba further said, that those promises were so extravagant that not only Raisi, but no other president could have accomplished them.

Meanwhile, interviews with fuel distribution officials indicated that there is a growing concern among consumers about an imminent rise in fuel prices. Some media in Iran have revealed that customers' gas rationing cards are being recalled and collected at some gas stations and this has given further rise to concerns about possible new rations and new prices. Although officials have tried to deny the rumors, Iranians generally believe based on previous experience that whatever officials deny today will come out to be true the next day.

Reformist political analyst Ahmad Naqibzadeh told Didban Iran that it appears officials are adamant to continue policies that have proven to be ineffective in the past. He added that they are not even willing to correct their wrong policies and call their critics the enemies of the state.

Criticism of Raisi's foreign policy is mainly about his government's failure to successfully carry out the nuclear negotiations in Vienna. Iranian lawmaker Zabihollah Azami said in an interview with Rouydad24 website on Sunday that the government should be held accountable for the opportunities it missed in the Vienna negotiations.

Iranian businesses and economists hoped that the negotiations would lead to the lifting of US sanctions and improving the battered economy, but critics now say the government's mistakes have led to the suspension of the talks since March.

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Criticism of Iran Government Intensifies As Unrest Spreads To Tehran -

Iran and Venezuela, oil producers grappling with crippling US sanctions, signed a 20-year cooperation plan in Tehran on Saturday, with the Islamic Republics supreme leader saying the allies would continue to resist pressure from Washington.

The signing ceremony, carried by Iranian state TV, was overseen by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro and took place at the Saadabad Palace in north Tehran.

The plan includes cooperation in the fields of oil, petrochemicals, defense, agriculture, tourism and culture.

It also includes repair of Venezuelan refineries and the export of technical and engineering services.

Venezuela has shown exemplary resistance against sanctions and threats from enemies and Imperialists, Irans Raisi said. The 20-year cooperation document is testimony to the will of the two countries to develop ties.

Sanctions and threats against the Iranian nation over the past 40 plus years have been numerous, but the Iranian nation has turned these sanctions into an opportunity for the countrys progress, he said.

Maduro said through an interpreter that a weekly flight from Caracas to Tehran would begin on July 18.

In a meeting with Maduro, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed Iran would continue to back Venezuela in the face of US pressures, according to state media.

The successful experience of the two countries showed that resistance is the only way to deal with these pressures, Khamenei said. The two countries have such close ties with no other country, and Iran has shown that it takes risks in times of danger and holds its friends hands.

Maduro said: You came to our aid when the situation in Venezuela was very difficult and no country was helping us.

Defying US pressures, Iran has sent several cargos of fuel to Venezuela and helped in refinery repairs. Last month, Venezuela began importing Iranian heavy crude, widening a swap agreement signed last year to exchange Iranian condensate for Venezuelan heavy crude.

Maduro arrived in Tehran on Friday with a high-ranking political and economic delegation after visiting Turkey and Algeria.

During the visit, Iran delivered to Venezuela the second of four Aframax-sized oil tankers, with a capacity of 800,000 barrels, ordered from the Iranian company SADRA, state media said. SADRA has been under US sanctions for more than a decade over its links to Irans elite Revolutionary Guards.

In May, Irans state-owned National Iranian Oil Engineering and Construction Co. signed a contract worth about 110 million euros to repair Venezuelas smaller 146,000 barrel-per-day refinery.

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Under US Sanctions, Iran and Venezuela Sign 20-Year Cooperation Plan - Algemeiner