

An Iranian ship tried to slip the blockade. A US destroyer chased it down.
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The Iranian-flagged oil tanker Dorena slipped past a U.S. Navy cordon and was headed out into the Indian Ocean when it switched off its location signal and went dark.The ship, whose movements were tracked by shipping-intelligence firm Kpler, is one of hundreds of sanctions-evading ghost-fleet vessels playing a game of cat-and-mouse as the U.S. tries to lock down Iran’s oil trade and pressure the country to agree to President Trump’s terms for peace.This time, the U.S.
came out on top. Early Thursday morning local time, the military said a Navy destroyer was escorting the Dorena off the west coast of India after foiling its attempt to escape and deliver its cargo.Shipping analytics firms say vessels continue to try their luck, testing the limits of a U.S. pressure campaign against the regime in Tehran, which includes a blockade and a separate effort to board shadow-fleet vessels.
The shadow fleet’s numbers are so great that the U.S. will have to prioritize which ones to take on.“It will be very hard to go after all of them,” said Emmanuel Belostrino, head of global crude and geopolitical market data for Kpler. “They didn’t even do that for Venezuela.”U.S.
Central Command, which oversees U.S. forces in the Middle East, said it also had intercepted two other Iranian-flagged ships—the Hero II and the Hedy—that had tried to breach the blockade. On Thursday, the military said U.S.
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