The U.S. Navy seized another tanker carrying Iranian oil in the Indian Ocean, the Pentagon announced on Thursday, as Iranian officials claimed the country has the first deposits from tolls collected from ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz in apparent defiance of the U.S. blockade.
A container ship is seen in the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Qeshm Island, Iran.
In a statement issued on X, the Defense Department said it had seized stateless vessel M/T Majestic X, which was “transporting oil from Iran, in the Indian Ocean.”
The interdiction was carried out by the U.S. military’s Indo-Pacific Command and the statement added that the military will continue to target “vessels providing material support to Iran, wherever they operate.”
The deputy speaker of Iran’s parliament, Hamidreza Haji Babaei, told the semi-official Tasnim News Agency that the first tranche of tolls collected from ships passing the Strait of Hormuz have been deposited into the Iranian central bank’s account, according to a BBC translation.
