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The Iranian military announced on May 8 that it had redirected a tanker carrying Iranian oil back to its shores, describing the operation as a seizure.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran’s navy, through a specially planned operation in the Sea of Oman, seized the offending tanker Ocean Koi,” the military said in a statement carried by state television, noting that the oil belonged to Iran.
It added that the tanker was redirected to Iran’s southern shores after it sought “to damage and disrupt Iran’s oil exports,” without elaborating.
The United States Treasury sanctioned the Ocean Koi last February for operating as part of the Islamic Republic’s “shadow fleet”.
Separately, the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said that its forces have so far prevented more than 70 tankers from entering or leaving Iranian ports as part of efforts to restrict Tehran’s oil exports.
“There are currently more than 70 tankers that US forces are preventing from entering or leaving Iranian ports,” CENTCOM said on X.
The command noted the vessels had the capacity to transport more than 166 million barrels of Iranian oil worth more than $13 billion.
Overnight, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy attacked three warships of the U.S. Navy close to the Strait of Hormuz after Iran accused the U.S. of violating the ceasefire by targeting two ships at the waterway and attacking civilian areas on its shores.
The escalation came after Trump announced on May 6 that the U.S. will be pausing the operation it launched a day prior to assist vessels stuck in the Strait of Hormuz due to progress made in talks toward a permanent ceasefire with Iran. The waterway — a choke point for around 20 percent of global oil and liquefied natural gas — has been very much under Iranian control since the start of the American-Israeli war on the Islamic Republic on February 28.
While all recent reports suggest that the U.S. is nearing a one-page memorandum of understanding with Iran, tensions appear to be building up again.
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