US forces detain Iran-linked tanker Tifani with ceasefire talks on edge 

United States forces have detained an oil tanker in the Indian Ocean sanctioned for smuggling Iranian crude oil, the Pentagon says.

The M/T Tifani was boarded overnight, the US Department of Defense announced on Tuesday. The raid was carried out as a two-week ceasefire between the US and Iran was about to expire and a resumption of their talks was on a knife edge.

“Overnight, US forces conducted a right-of-visit, maritime interdiction and boarding of the stateless sanctioned M/T Tifani without incident in the INDOPACOM area of responsibility,” the department posted on social media, referring to the US military’s Indo-Pacific Command.

The statement said the US is determined “to disrupt illicit networks and interdict sanctioned vessels providing material support to Iran – anywhere they operate”.

INDOPACOM oversees a broad region that includes the Pacific and Indian oceans. The exact location of the operation was not made clear.

An unnamed US defence 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 US military will decide in the coming days what to do with the vessel, for instance, tow it back to the US or turn it over to another country, the official reportedly said.

The Tifani is a Botswana-flagged tanker, according to the intelligence firm Vanguard Tech.

Its last signal was detected on Tuesday halfway between Sri Lanka and the Strait of Malacca, according to the maritime tracking website Marine Traffic. Its tracking signal indicated it was heading towards Singapore.

“International waters are not a refuge for sanctioned vessels,” the Pentagon said in its post, which included video footage showing helicopters hovering just above a large, bright orange tanker.

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.

US President Donald Trump has promised to maintain a blockade on Iran “until there is a deal” to end the war.

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.

Doubts remained on Tuesday regarding whether a second round of negotiations between Tehran and Washington would take place in Pakistan. An initial round ended on April 12 without a breakthrough.

Pakistan’s attempts to broker the talks were becoming more urgent throughout Tuesday as the expiration of the already tenuous ceasefire between Washington and Tehran approached.

A spokesperson for Tehran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs told state television on Tuesday that Iran had still ⁠to decide whether to attend 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 attacked and seized an Iranian-flagged cargo ship on Sunday that it said had tried to evade its blockade.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman declared that these actions called into question Washington’s seriousness in negotiating.

Trump, meanwhile, declared that the US military is “raring to go” if an agreement is not reached.