3 Iranian tankers with 4.8M barrels of oil pass US blockade: What to know
At least three US-sanctioned Iranian-flagged tankers have exited the Gulf of Oman as the Trump administration eyes Tehran's moves ahead of sanctions waivers expected to begin Friday.
WASHINGTON — At least three Iranian-owned oil tankers currently blacklisted under US economic sanctions recently passed through the US Navy’s blockade of Iran, publicly available maritime tracking data shows.
The vessels — Diona, Sonia and Hero II — are all owned by the National Iranian Tanker Company, itself under US sanctions.
A fourth Iranian-flagged NITC vessel, the M/T Stream, had reached the blockade line heading west toward the Gulf of Oman on Wednesday after idling for several weeks in the Arabian Sea.
The moves documented by MarineTraffic and Kpler suggest at least 4.8 million barrels of Iranian oil have exited the US Navy’s blockade line east of the Strait of Hormuz since Monday.
On Sunday, US President Donald Trump announced that he would immediately lift the blockade of Iran’s ports in exchange for Iran halting its threats to shipping via the Strait of Hormuz.
But signals were mixed when a maritime advisory center contributed to by the US military warned ships not to cross the blockade line, saying that the embargo would remain in place until Friday.
Trump’s announcement came ahead of plans for the US and Iranian officials to formally sign a general framework in Geneva Friday that would pause the war for an additional 60 days to allow for a return to diplomatic negotiations.
Senior Trump administration officials cautioned on Monday, however, that it could take several weeks for commercial tanker traffic across the strait to be restored to pre-war levels. Deputy Iranian Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi said the US had begun to lift its naval blockade ahead of Friday's anticipated signing, Iranian state media reported Tuesday.
As of Sunday, the US Navy had turned back 142 ships bound for or sailing from Iranian ports since the Trump administration imposed the blockade in April in response to Iran's efforts to close the Strait of Hormuz, the Pentagon’s Middle East headquarters said earlier this week. The US military also forcibly seized or disabled nine other vessels it accused of attempting to outrun the blockade, in several instances firing missiles to disable civilian-crewed tankers. An airstrike on a tanker last week killed three Indian crew members and prompted a sharp objection by India's government, which summoned Washington's charge d'affaires in New Delhi in response.
A spokesperson for US Central Command declined to comment on the Iranian-flagged vessels shown to have exited the naval blockade this week.
On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal first reported that the Trump administration was planning to issue sanctions waivers to allow Iran to sell its oil abroad as soon as the agreement is signed by the planned delegations in Geneva on Friday.
A US official confirmed that news to Al-Monitor, but offered a caveat: “This is a performance-based agreement."
“Iran can only access any benefits of the MoU if they abide by all of the points they agreed to — including no nuclear weapon, neutralizing its enriched material and not interfering with the free flow of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz," the official said.
