CARACAS /  WASHINGTON — An Iranian ship was approaching the Venezuelan port of La Guaira on Sunday with a cargo of food that will supply the South American nation’s first Iranian supermarket, according to Refinitiv Eikon and Iran’s embassy in Venezuela.

Iran supplied 1.5 million barrels of fuel to Venezuela last month amid a collapse of refinery operations and tightening sanctions by the United States that has made it more difficult for Venezuela to obtain fuel on international markets.

The Iranian-flagged general cargo ship Golsan, owned by Mosakhar Darya Shipping Co, departed on May 15 from Bandar Abbas. Five tankers left for the Caribbean from the same port in March after loading fuel, according to Eikon data.

The Golsan will arrive carrying food to open the first Iranian supermarket in Venezuela

Iranian Embassy

ALSO READ: Venezuela's Maduro says he will visit Iran soon, sign agreements

“The Golsan will arrive carrying food to open the first Iranian supermarket in Venezuela,” the Iranian Embassy wrote on Saturday via its Twitter account. It did not provide details.

Venezuela’s Information Ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Iran is expected to dispatch two to three monthly shipments of gasoline to its ally Venezuela, sources close to the matter said, which would help offload the gasoline inventory that Iran accumulates, while helping to alleviate the fuel shortage in Venezuela.

The growing bilateral trade could lead to retaliation by the United States, which has enacted extensive sanctions programs against the two countries.

READ MORE: Venezuela's Maduro defends right to 'freely trade' with Iran

US President Donald Trump said in an interview published on Sunday that he would consider meeting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and played down his earlier decision to recognize opposition leader Juan Guaido as the country’s legitimate leader.

“I would maybe think about that. ... Maduro would like to meet. And I’m never opposed to meetings,” Trump told online news site Axios on Friday, a move that would upend his “maximum pressure” campaign aimed at ousting the Socialist president.

“But at this moment, I’ve turned them down,” Trump added.

Trump had expressed an openness in 2018 to meeting Maduro, who had also made overtures for talks, but nothing materialized and the United States instead ratcheted up the pressure.

But Trump’s latest comments were possibly the clearest sign yet of what some US officials have privately said was growing frustration over his administration’s failure to unseat Maduro through sanctions and diplomacy.