Trump says U.S. Marines have seized Iranian ship and says it tried to evade blockade
U.S. Marines have reportedly seized an Iranian cargo ship that was attempting to pass through the American naval blockade at the Strait of Hormuz, according to President Donald Trump.
Trump announced the seizure in a post on Truth Social on Sunday evening.
“Today, an Iranian-flagged cargo ship named TOUSKA, nearly 900 feet long and weighing almost as much as an aircraft carrier, tried to get past our Naval Blockade, and it did not go well for them,” he wrote.
Trump said that the ship’s crew “refused to listen, so our Navy ship stopped them right in their tracks by blowing a hole in the engineroom.”
“Right now, U.S. Marines have custody of the vessel. The TOUSKA is under U.S. Treasury Sanctions because of their prior history of illegal activity. We have full custody of the ship, and are seeing what’s on board!” Trump wrote.
The U.S. began its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz on April 13 following a failed peace negotiation in Islamabad, Pakistan between American and Iranian officials.
“We can’t let a country blackmail or extort the world, because that’s what they’re doing,” Trump told reporters on Monday outside the Oval Office.
He warned on Monday that any Iranian ships approaching the blockade would be “immediately eliminated.”
“If any of these ships come anywhere close to our BLOCKADE, they will be immediately ELIMINATED, using the same system of kill that we use against the drug dealers on boats at Sea,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “It is quick and brutal.”
Iran’s ambassador to Pakistan, Reza Amiri Moghadam, criticized Trump’s continued threats on Sunday, including those surrounding the blockade.
“You cannot keep violating the international law, double down on your blockade, threaten Iran with further war crimes, insist on unreasonable demands, pace out with rethorics (sic) and pretend to be pursuing ‘Diplomacy,’” he wrote on X.
He added that “as long as the naval blockade remains, fault lines remain.”
Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf warned on Friday that Iran will close the Strait of Hormuz if the U.S. blockade continues.
“If the blockade continues, the Strait of Hormuz will not remain open,” Ghalibaf wrote in a post on X.
He further stated that “transit in the Strait of Hormuz will take place based on a ‘designated route’ and with ‘authorization from Iran.'”
