Illustrative image. (U.S. Central Command)
The United States military has intercepted at least three Iranian-flagged tankers in Asian waters, Reuters reported on April 22.
The news agency cited two U.S. and Indian shipping sources, in addition to two separate Western maritime security sources.
Despite expanding the two-week ceasefire with Iran earlier in the week, President Donald Trump ordered the U.S. military to keep a blockade on Iranian ports in place. The blockade in addition to Iran’s own restriction on navigation via the Strait of Hormuz have very much brought traffic through the strategic waterway — responsible for up to 20 percent of global oil and liquid natural gas shipments — to a halt.
In addition, efforts to hold a second round of American-Iranian talks in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, are yet to produce a result.
According to Reuters, the Deep Sea supertanker was among the vessels intercepted by the U.S. military. It was partially loaded with crude and last seen on its public tracking transponder off Malaysia’s coast a week ago, according to the sources and ship tracking data on the MarineTraffic platform.
The smaller Sevin tanker, which had a maximum capacity of one million barrels and was carrying 65% of its load, was also intercepted. The vessel was last spotted off Malaysia’s coast a month ago, ship tracking data showed.
The Dorena, another supertanker, was also intercepted while fully loaded with two million barrels of crude. It was last seen off the coast of southern India three days ago, according to the sources and ship tracking data on the MarineTraffic platform.
The U.S. Central Command confirmed a post on X that the Dorena has been under the escort of a U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer in the Indian Ocean after “attempting to violate the blockade.”
In the same post, the command said that since the start of its blockade against ships entering or exiting Iranian ports, its forces had directed 29 vessels to turn around or return to port.
Earlier in the day, three cargo ships were reportedly attacked close to the Strait of Hormuz by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which later reportedly seized at least two of them.
The interception of the three Iranian-flagged tankers in Asian waters indicate that the U.S. is planning to expand the blockade on Iran. This will likely hinder mediation efforts, and could even provoke some response from the Islamic Republic. In general, the situation is getting more complicated.
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my anuz was intercepted by 3 americunt mulatto peniz yesterday–now i am lgbt military expert
united epsteins of trump are losers and chickens, trump always chickens out, and is swollowing so much iranian jizz he has lost his mind…hehehe
we own the oceans…heheheh
and the rest of the world just allows this piracy on the high seas.
the same cowards who got all pissed when the somalis were doing the same thing off their coast.
this is what happens in a godless world.