Three tankers reportedly reached the Islamic Republic via Pakistani waters as leaked US intel claimed Tehran could withstand the blockade for months
Three Iranian oil tankers have bypassed what US President Donald Trump has called a naval “wall of steel” in the Strait of Hormuz and reached Iranian ports through Pakistani waters over the past two days, Tehran’s IRNA state news agency reported on Friday, citing maritime tracking data.
Washington imposed a naval blockade on Iran last month to choke off the country’s oil trade and pressure Tehran into agreeing to a deal on its nuclear program.
Iran operates ports outside the Strait of Hormuz choke point, including Chabahar and Jask near the Pakistani border, allowing ships to reach Iranian territory via the Gulf of Oman without entering the narrow transit corridor where US naval patrols are concentrated.
According to IRNA, the empty vessels belonging to Iranian state-owned oil firm, NIOC, transited through Pakistan’s exclusive economic zone before arriving at Iranian ports. Citing the TankerTrackers platform, the agency said the tankers’ combined capacity is about 5 million barrels of crude oil.
According to the Washington Post, a confidential US intelligence assessment concluded Iran can survive the blockade for at least three to four months before facing more severe economic hardship. While the blockade has severely disrupted the country’s crude exports, Tehran has reportedly been using tankers as floating storage, while reducing output in order to preserve infrastructure.
Iran’s economic situation is “nowhere near as dire as some have claimed,” one source told the WaPo.
Analysts estimate that Iran currently has access to about 65-75 million barrels of floating storage capacity, equivalent to roughly 36-42 days of its prewar crude exports.
Pakistan has also opened multiple overland transit routes connecting its ports and border crossings to Iran, allowing trade flows to continue.
While Trump has repeatedly defended the blockade’s effectiveness, claiming earlier this week that Iran’s economy was “crashing” and describing the measure as “a wall of steel” through which “nobody goes through,” officials in Tehran have insisted the country can withstand prolonged economic pressure and continue operating despite the blockade.
