The US military on Thursday seized the Guyana-flagged oil tanker Majestic X in the Indian Ocean, ratcheting up its confrontation with Iran a day after Iran’s Revolutionary Guards took control of two vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.
The US Department of Defense released video footage of American forces on the deck of the tanker. Ship-tracking data placed the Majestic X between Sri Lanka and Indonesia — roughly the same Indian Ocean waters where US forces boarded the M/T Tifani earlier this month.
“We will continue global maritime enforcement to disrupt illicit networks and interdict vessels providing material support to Iran, wherever they operate,” a Pentagon statement said.
The vessel was previously named Phonix and had been sanctioned by the US Treasury in 2024 for smuggling Iranian crude oil. It was reportedly bound for Zhoushan, China.
US Central Command said it has now directed 31 ships to turn around or return to port since imposing a naval blockade on Iranian ports. On Wednesday, the US also intercepted three other Iranian tankers in waters near Sri Lanka, India and Malaysia.
Iran dismissed the seizure and vowed retaliation. Tehran has said it will not return to negotiations until the US blockade is lifted, and on Thursday a top Iranian official said the country does not recognise the ceasefire that President Donald Trump unilaterally extended this week.
The Majestic X is the latest in a widening campaign of US interdictions on shipping routes directly overlapping Sri Lanka’s fuel import corridor. The Indian Ocean between Sri Lanka and Indonesia has become an active US naval enforcement zone, with implications for freight insurance, transit times and the pricing of crude shipments bound for Colombo.
