WASHINGTON, August 19. /TASS/. The US Army has organized the covert transport of millions of barrels of oil through the Strait of Hormuz without coordination with the Iranian authorities, Axios reported, citing sources.
According to the news outlet, between 15 and 20 tankers pass through the strait’s southern channel along the coast of Oman every day, successfully exporting about 10 million barrels of oil from the Middle East, roughly half of the pre-war level.
"We have been controlling the southern lane of the Strait of Hormuz for two months now. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps can be a nuisance, but they don't control the strait. We do," Axios quoted a source as saying.
A team of US military officials is coordinating the operation with Washington’s Middle Eastern partners and compiling a daily list of ships planning to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. Every night, these ships are escorted by US Air Force fighter jets as they load and unload oil and periodically check in at checkpoints.
The US and Israel launched a war against Iran on February 28. In June, Washington and Tehran, with Islamabad acting as mediator, signed a memorandum of understanding providing for an immediate cessation of hostilities on all fronts, including in Lebanon. However, in the early morning hours of July 8, the US resumed large-scale strikes against Iran, accusing it of violating the terms of the agreements reached on the Strait of Hormuz. On August 2, Trump announced that the US and Iran would begin negotiations on a peace deal. In addition, the US leader wrote on his Truth Social page that he had agreed to call off a planned massive strike against Iran in order to reach a deal with Tehran. According to him, Tehran and Arab countries asked Washington to refrain from an attack, as the sides had agreed on the outlines of a future agreement.