The ship, which was detained as part of a US policy to block all vessels with ties to Tehran, is under sanctions for smuggling Iranian crude oil.
Published on 21 April 2026
The Pentagon says the United States military has detained an oil tanker sanctioned for smuggling Iranian crude in the Indian Ocean.
The U.S. Department of Defense announced Tuesday that the M/T Tiffani was boarded up overnight. The raid was carried out as the two-week ceasefire between the US and Iran was about to end and their talks were on the verge of resuming.
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“Overnight, the U.S. military conducted a right of passage, maritime interdiction and boarding on the stateless sanctioned M/T Tifani without incident in the INDOPACOM area of responsibility,” the department posted on social media, referring to the U.S. military’s Indo-Pacific Command.
The statement said the US is “committed to disrupting illicit networks and imposing sanctions on sanctioned vessels that provide material support to Iran – regardless of where they operate”.
INDOPACOM oversees a broad area that includes the Pacific and Indian Oceans. The exact location of the operation was not made clear.
An unnamed US defense official told the Associated Press news agency that the Tifani was captured in the Bay of Bengal between India and Southeast Asia and was carrying Iranian oil.
The official reportedly said the US military will decide in the coming days what to do with the ship, for example, taking it back to the US or handing it over to another country.
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According to intelligence firm Vanguard Tech, the Tiffani is a Botswana-flagged tanker.
According to marine tracking website Marine Traffic, its last signal was detected between Sri Lanka and the Strait of Malacca on Tuesday. Its tracking signals indicated that it was headed towards Singapore.
“International waters are not a haven for sanctioned vessels,” the Pentagon said in its post, which included video footage of helicopters hovering directly above a large, bright orange tanker.
The ship loaded about 2 million barrels of crude oil at Iran’s Kharg Island on April 5 and passed through the Strait of Hormuz on April 9, AFP news agency reported, citing energy intelligence firm Kpler.
Tiffani has carried out several ship-to-ship oil transfers from Singapore and Malaysia in recent years and made several round-trip voyages between that region and destinations that include Iran and China.
US President Donald Trump has promised to maintain the blockade on Iran “until a deal is reached” to end the war.
However, on Monday, maritime data firm Lloyd’s List Intelligence said “at least 26 ships of Iran’s ghost fleet have breached the US blockade since it was imposed last week”.
There was doubt on Tuesday about whether the second round of talks would take place between Tehran and Washington in Pakistan or not. The preliminary round ended on 12 April without any success.
Pakistan’s efforts to mediate talks were becoming more urgent on Tuesday as the already fragile ceasefire between Washington and Tehran nears its end.
A spokesman for Tehran’s Foreign Ministry told state television on Tuesday that Iran had yet to decide whether to participate, as he described the boarding of the tanker as well as the earlier seizure of a cargo ship as “piracy at sea and state terrorism.”
The US Navy on Sunday attacked and seized an Iranian-flagged cargo ship that it said had tried to evade its blockade.
An Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman declared that these actions raised questions about Washington’s seriousness in negotiations.
Meanwhile, Trump declared that the US military is “raring to go” if no deal is reached.
