The U.S. military said it boarded an Iranian-flagged oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman on Wednesday, part of a continuing effort to enforce an American blockade aimed at getting Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and accept terms to end the war.
In a statement posted by U.S. Central Command on social media, officials said the M/T Celestial Sea was searched and redirected after the vessel was suspected of trying to violate the blockade and head to an Iranian port. The boarding came as the Trump administration said it was still seeking room for negotiations, even as it kept pressure on Iran through maritime interdictions.
The tanker boarding followed President Donald Trump’s decision to call off renewed military strikes on Iran. The AP reported that Trump said he had planned “a very major attack” for Tuesday but put it off, saying U.S. allies in the Gulf asked him to wait for two to three days because they felt they were close to a deal.
Trump has repeatedly set deadlines for Tehran and then backed off, the AP said, underscoring the administration’s pattern of linking military action and restraint to negotiation momentum. Within that framework, the military has continued interdicting ships it believes are attempting to get around the blockade, including vessels far from the Middle East.
The AP said the boarding of the Celestial Sea was at least the fifth commercial vessel to be boarded since the Trump administration imposed the blockade on Iranian shipping in mid-April, several days into a ceasefire. Before the blockade, Tehran allowed some ships perceived as friendly to pass while charging fees, drawing accusations that Iran was using access to shipping lanes to extract payment and pressure global energy markets.
U.S. Central Command has previously said 1,550 vessels from 87 countries are stranded in the Persian Gulf, a disruption that has become part of the political debate inside the United States. The AP reported that Trump faced mounting pressure at home as Republicans in Congress battle ahead of November’s midterm elections, with gasoline prices rising and global energy markets reacting to the turmoil.
The Senate on Tuesday advanced legislation intended to force Trump to withdraw from the Iran war. The AP reported the measure advanced in a 50-47 vote with an increasing number of Republicans defying the president, adding to political headwinds alongside the costs of the blockade for U.S. consumers.
The maritime operations have also included recent confrontations in the Strait of Hormuz. Days earlier, U.S. forces fired on and disabled two Iranian oil tankers after exchanging fire with Iranian forces, with the U.S. military saying the tankers were trying to breach the blockade, according to the AP report.
The AP further said the Pentagon had recently boarded and seized tankers associated with smuggling Iranian crude oil in other parts of the region, including actions in the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean between Sri Lanka and Indonesia. It also said the U.S. had announced a plan to “guide” stranded ships through the Iran-gripped corridor, then paused that protection effort to see whether an agreement could be reached.
Nearly three months since the war began with U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on Feb. 28, the AP report said Iran maintains a chokehold on the strait while the U.S. enforces the blockade on Iranian ports and Iranian-linked ships. Against that backdrop, the administration has continued using maritime interdictions and periodic shifts in military strike plans to try to push Tehran toward reopening the corridor, even as Trump’s negotiating approach faces both international and domestic scrutiny.