The United States government has seized nearly 1 million barrels of Iranian crude oil that it says was being smuggled to China in violation of US sanctions against Iran, after it raised the threat of prosecution to get the tanker brought to American waters, newly unsealed court papers show.
The seizure of the oil from the vessel, the M/T Suez Rajan, is part of a larger and shadowy conflict with Iran. After the tanker began to steam toward the United States last spring, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard seized two oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, prompting the US military to increase patrols and deploy additional assets to protect shipping lanes.
