Several viral X posts claim that an oil tanker transporting aviation fuel to Israel was seized this week by Iranian officials. “Just in, Iran seized an Indian oil tanker carrying 300,000 barrels of aviation fuel to Israel,” reads one post with more than 270,000 views. Dozens of similar posts are also spreading on the platform.
The claim lacks evidence.
None of the five Iran scholars The Dispatch Fact Check asked about the supposed oil tanker seizure had heard of it or any similar occurrences in recent weeks, and there have been no credible media reports of the incident. None of the posts making the claim link to a news story or cite a source.
“My team ran a Persian search today and found no reports about an Iranian seizure of an Indian-flagged oil tanker. I have also not seen anything in Israeli or Arab media,” Brian Carter, the Middle East portfolio manager for the American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats Project, told The Dispatch Fact Check. “Iranian, Arab, and Israeli media would have almost certainly reported these incidents if they occurred.”
While there is no evidence of this particular seizure, oil tankers and their associated firms do occasionally feature in the geopolitical tug-of-war between the U.S. (and Israel) and Iran. In early December, the U.S. placed sanctions on several entities—including two Indian firms—that transported Iranian oil, and an additional Indian firm was included in a wave of U.S. sanctions issued on Thursday. Iranian state media also announced this week that it would auction off two oil tankers seized in 2022 for oil smuggling. In January 2024, Iran also seized a Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker bound for Turkey in retaliation for the seizure of the same vessel by the U.S. in 2023.
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