Chicago – December 13, 2025
United States military forces reportedly intercepted and boarded a cargo ship traveling from China to Iran in November, marking a rare and increasingly assertive maritime move under President Donald Trump’s administration.
US special operations forces conducted the operation several hundred miles off the coast of Sri Lanka. Unnamed officials told the publication that the mission represented the first known US interception in years of cargo moving between China and Iran.
The operation occurred weeks before US authorities seized an oil tanker near Venezuela earlier this week, citing violations of American sanctions. That seizure resulted in the vessel being taken to a port in Texas, signaling a renewed willingness by Washington to enforce sanctions aggressively at sea an approach not seen in recent years.
An official familiar with the November interdiction stated that US personnel confiscated materials deemed “potentially useful for Iran’s conventional weapons.” However, the official emphasized that the seized items were considered dual-use, meaning they could serve both civilian and military purposes.
Following the inspection and seizure of the materials, the ship was permitted to continue its journey. US Indo-Pacific Command did not immediately confirm the report.
Iran continues to face extensive US sanctions, while China one of Tehran’s most important trading partners has consistently criticized those sanctions as unlawful. Neither Tehran nor Beijing issued an immediate response to the report involving the cargo ship.
Earlier on Friday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun publicly criticized the US seizure of the Venezuelan oil tanker, condemning the action as another example of Washington’s unilateral enforcement of sanctions.
The reported ship interception underscores what analysts see as a broader shift toward more aggressive maritime enforcement by the Trump administration, particularly in relation to Iran and its international trade routes.
