Indian coastal authorities 'seize' 3 US-sanctioned oil tankers linked to Iran

NEW DELHI: Indian coastal authorities reportedly “seized 3 US-sanctioned tanker ships linked to Iran” earlier this month, a root informed TOI connected Monday. The vas seizures travel the betterment successful India-US relations with Washington announcing precocious that it would chopped import tariffs connected Indian goods to 18% from 50%.In a related development, US subject forces boarded different sanctioned tanker successful the Indian Ocean aft tracking the vas from the Caribbean Sea, successful an effort to people illicit lipid commercialized connected to Venezuela, the Pentagon said connected Sunday.‘Shadow fleet’ vessels Stellar Ruby, Asphalt Star and Al Jafzia carrying sanctioned Iranian lipid were seized connected Feb 6. India’s unprecedented enforcement enactment took spot the aforesaid time that Washington and New Delhi unveiled a large bilateral commercialized framework.Indian coastal authorities said successful a station connected X connected Feb 6 that they had intercepted the 3 vessels astir 100 nautical miles westbound of Mumbai aft detecting suspicious enactment involving a tanker successful India's exclusive economical zone. However, the station was aboriginal deleted.Stellar Ruby, Asphalt Star and Al Jafzia often changed their identities to evade enactment by coastal states, and their owners were based overseas, it was said.

According to Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a Washington DC-based probe institute, “All 3 were antecedently sanctioned by the US for their ties to Iran. They signifier portion of a 30-tanker fleet managed by Jugwinder Singh Brar, a UAE-based Indian nationalist designated by the Treasury Department successful April 2025 for operating successful the petroleum assemblage of the Iranian economy. The Stellar Ruby was inactive flying an Iranian emblem astatine the clip of the seizure”.Importantly, Iran excessively had seized an lipid tanker, MT Valiant Roar, connected Dec 8 with 16 Indian unit members connected board. Of the 16, 8 person been released, but 8 are inactive successful Iran’s custody. Their families person been demanding the merchandise of the sailors.As for US forces boarding different sanctioned tanker successful the Indian Ocean, Venezuela has faced US sanctions connected its lipid for respective years and relied connected a shadiness fleet of falsely flagged tankers to smuggle crude into planetary proviso chains.

President Donald Trump ordered a quarantine of sanctioned tankers successful Dec to unit then-President Nicolás Maduro -- Maduro was apprehended successful Jan during an American subject operation.Several tankers fled the Venezuelan seashore successful the aftermath of the raid, including the vessel that was boarded successful the Indian Ocean overnight. The Defense Department said successful a station connected X that US forces had boarded Veronica III, conducting “a right-of-visit, maritime interdiction and boarding.” “The vas tried to defy President Trump’s quarantine — hoping to gaffe away,” the Pentagon said. “We tracked it from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean, closed the region and unopen it down,” it added.