US Seizes Second Tanker Carrying Iranian Oil
US navy forces stopped and boarded a second sanctioned tanker carrying oil from Iran within the Indian Ocean, the Pentagon stated on Thursday, ramping up stress on Tehran because the Trump administration seeks to renew negotiations to finish the conflict.
A naval boarding staff roped down from hovering helicopters and fanned out on the vessel, the M/T Majestic a Pentagon statement that included a 17-second video of the operation.
The navy stated the boarding was a part of a “global maritime enforcement to disrupt illicit networks and interdict vessels providing material support to Iran, wherever they operate.”
The tanker was carrying crude oil for China, in accordance with information from MarineTraffic, a web site that tracks world transport. The ship has transported hundreds of thousands of barrels of sanctioned Iranian oil since at the least 2022, in accordance with the Treasury Department.
Earlier this week, Navy SEALS boarded another ship within the Indian Ocean, the M/T Tifani, after the Pentagon stated it was carrying oil from Iran.
Navy destroyers are additionally shadowing a number of different Iranian vessels, together with the Dorena and Sevin, which had left from the Iranian port of Chabahar earlier than the US-imposed blockade started on April 13, a US navy official stated. The Navy is directing these ships to return to an Iranian port, the official stated.
With the M/T Tifani and M/T Majestic now at the least quickly within the custody of the navy, a US navy official stated it was as much as the White House to resolve what to do with the sanctioned vessels and their cost. The administration beforehand seized a number of tankers carrying illicit oil from Venezuela after a US commando raid there in January that seized Nicolás Maduro, the nation’s president.
“International waters cannot be used as a shield by sanctioned actors,” the Pentagon stated in its assertion on Thursday, including that the division would “continue to deny illicit actors and their vessels freedom of maneuver in the maritime domain.”
Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, hinted last week that the US navy would probably start boarding operations like those this week. He stated that US navy commanders elsewhere on the earth, and particularly within the Indo-Pacific area, would “actively pursue any Iranian-flagged vessel or any vessel attempting to provide material support to Iran.”
The US Navy has turned again at least 31 ships Trying to enter or exit Iranian ports since an American blockade outdoors the contested Strait of Hormuz started a couple of week in the past, US Central Command stated late Wednesday.
Last Sunday, a Navy destroyer disabled and seized the Touskaan Iranian cargo ship, after it tried to evade the blockade. It was the primary time a vessel was reported to have tried to evade the US-imposed blockade on any ship getting into or exiting Iranian ports because it took impact final week.
Emmett Lindner contributed reporting.
