Middle East Monitoring Desk Islamabad The U.S. Navy took control of another Irani tanker M/T Tifani, loaded with almost two million barrels of Iranian crude oil headed straight for China. Earlier on 19 April Sunday night US forces seized the Iranian-flagged cargo ship Touska was captured while it was passing through to cross Hormuz.US Navy fired a guided missile in the Gulf of Oman to stop it.
President Trump shared in a social media post that the US Navy “stopped them right in their tracks by blowing a hole in the engine room” and that US Marines had custody of the vessel, and were “seeing what’s on board”.
The US Central Command said Touska was headed to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas and ignored multiple US warnings over six hours to evacuate the engine room.
On 21 April , few hours before the capture of Second Ship Tifani, President Donald Trump alleged , “U.S. forces caught an Iranian ship trying to sneak illicit goods straight from China into Iran. “We caught a ship yesterday that had some things on it, which wasn’t very nice. A ‘GIFT’ from China, perhaps,” Trump said.
He added with his trademark straight talk, “I was a little surprised, because I have a very good relationship and I thought I had an understanding with President Xi, but that’s all right. That’s the way war goes, right?”
China’s foreign ministry says in a statement that the ship boarded and seized by the US today is a “foreign container ship” and that Beijing “rejects any false association and speculation”.
The ship had just come from Chinese ports and was on the Treasury sanctions list for ties to Iran’s weapons programs. Sources say it was likely hauling dual-use cargo that could fuel missiles or worse.
Second Tanker Tifani had loaded up at Iran’s Kharg Island terminal before setting sail. US side shared , No shots fired, no chaos, just precise enforcement of U.S. sanctions. Trump’s team is systematically choking off Tehran’s oil revenue lifeline, one tanker at a time.
The Pentagon confirmed it straight up. They called it a “right-of-visit maritime interdiction” carried out “without incident” in the Indo-Pacific Command area. In their own words: “We will pursue global maritime enforcement efforts to disrupt illicit networks and interdict sanctioned vessels providing material support to Iran — anywhere they operate. International waters are not a refuge for sanctioned vessels.”
Fox News footage captured the operation in action: naval ships on station, helicopters overhead, and US personnel executing a clean right-of-visit maritime interdiction. The Pentagon put it plainly: “We conducted a right-of-visit maritime interdiction and boarded the M/T Tifani without incident.”
In their statement, the Defense Department made clear this is no one-off: “As we have made clear, we will pursue global maritime enforcement efforts to disrupt illicit networks and interdict sanctioned vessels providing material support to Iran anywhere they operate. International waters are not a refuge for sanctioned vessels.”
USS Abraham Lincoln is in the Arabian Sea, taking on fresh supplies from the USNS Carl Brashear via helicopter vertical replenishment on April 18. With over 10,000 American troops, a dozen-plus warships, and more than 100 aircraft on station, the carrier strike group is leading naval blockade. No ships slip in or out of Iranian ports without facing U.S. enforcement and Trump is claiming to stop the cash flow of Iran government.
On Monday, however, maritime data firm Lloyd’s List Intelligence said “at least 26 ships from Iran’s ghost fleet [have] circumvented the US blockade” since it was imposed last week.
Americans are sending massive military airlift to the Gulf as so called ceasefire is ending in 24 hours while no second round of talks is confirmed in Islamabad because Iran did not decided to participate till the night of 21 April.
US C-17 Globemaster heavy lifters are roaring nonstop into the Middle East right now, hauling troops, weapons, and gear in what amounts to one of the biggest air bridges in recent memory. Flight trackers show dozens of these massive cargo planes streaming across the Atlantic and Europe, feeding bases near Iran amid a naval blockade choking off Tehran’s ports and collapsed peace talks.
“President of Peace” Mr. Trump seas it as peace through strength in action. After joint strikes on Iranian nuclear sites and a shaky ceasefire, the Trump administration is reinforcing positions to invade again and with maximum force.
According to an AFP news agency report citing the energy intelligence firm Kpler, the vessel loaded about 2 million barrels of crude on Iran’s Kharg Island on April 5 and passed through the Strait of Hormuz on April 9 .
The Tifani has in recent years carried out numerous ship-to-ship oil transfers off Singapore and Malaysia and made multiple round trips between that area and destinations that include Iran and China.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Tuesday called the U.S. blockade a breach of the ceasefire and said “striking a commercial vessel and taking its crew hostage is an even greater violation.” In a letter, Iran’s U.N. Mission asked the U.N. Security Council and U.N. chief António Guterres to condemn the U.S. for seizing the Touska and its crew.
