US seized nearly 1 million barrels of Iranian oil being smuggled to China
FOX NewsJUL 2023
The US has just confessed to acts of piracy against an oil tanker carrying Iranian oil in international waters, a practice in which Washington and its allies have engaged since the American withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018. This is a blatant and unacceptable violation of the Iranian nation's rights.
US sanctions on Iranian oil would alone justify the seizure of the oil tanker as it was part of a smuggling scheme in which multiple actors conspired to evade such sanctions, but there was more to it than that. The Suez Rajan was owned by an American private equity firm at the time of the transfer of oil, giving further leverage to US prosecutors.