US disables two Iranian tankers in Gulf of Oman as Iran seizes Barbados-flagged ship and activates Hormuz toll authority

US Central Command said American forces disabled two Iranian-flagged tankers, the M/T Sea Star III and M/T Sevda, in the Gulf of Oman on May 8 as the unladen vessels attempted to enter an Iranian port. Centcom said it fired "precision munitions into their smokestacks" and added that a third Iranian-flagged vessel had been disabled on Wednesday. "All three vessels are no longer transiting to Iran," it said in a statement on X. Adm. Bradley Cooper, the CENTCOM commander, said US forces "remain committed to full enforcement of the blockade of vessels entering or leaving Iran."

CENTCOM separately said the blockade now covers 70 tankers blocked from entering or leaving Iranian ports. "These commercial ships have the capacity to transport over 166 million barrels of Iranian oil worth an estimated $13 billion-plus," it said. The US Navy has blockaded Iran's ports since April 13, choking off the revenues that Tehran depends on through the Strait of Hormuz, the chokepoint through which roughly a fifth of the world's oil normally moves.

Hours before the Centcom announcement, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said its navy had seized the Ocean Koi, a Barbados-flagged tanker, in a "special operation" in the Gulf of Oman, accusing it of attempting to "disrupt oil exports and the interests of the Iranian nation." Press TV released video showing Iranian forces boarding the vessel from small boats with a ladder and rerouting it to Iran's southern coast. The US Treasury had sanctioned the Ocean Koi in February as part of Iran's "shadow fleet," a network of vessels Washington says has been used to move sanctioned oil since 2020.

Tehran also formally stood up a "Persian Gulf Strait Authority" to manage transits of the Strait of Hormuz, with new rules first reported by the shipping magazine Lloyd's List. Ships intending to pass must email Iranian authorities detailing the vessel's country of origin, owner, insurance, crew, cargo and final destination, and obtain clearance and pay tolls before sailing. Iran has said it intends to share revenue with Oman and use it to pay for war damages. Press TV had reported earlier in the week that a "system to exercise sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz" was being established. France previously called the toll regime "unacceptable."

The day's exchanges followed a more serious clash hours earlier in which the US and Iran traded fire in the Strait. President Donald Trump said Iran had attacked three US Navy destroyers; Iran's joint military command said the US targeted an Iranian oil tanker and a second ship, with 10 sailors wounded and five missing, and that US air attacks hit civilian areas on Qeshm Island, a strategic point at the entrance to the strait. Iran said it responded by striking US vessels east of the strait and south of Chabahar. Trump dismissed the exchange as "just a love tap" and insisted the April 8 ceasefire remained intact.

Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei warned against "adventurism and roguish behaviour." Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi accused Washington of opting for "reckless military adventure" each time diplomacy seemed in reach. "Iranians never bow to pressure and diplomacy is always the victim," he said, adding in the same statement that Iran's missile inventory and launcher capacity were "120%" of pre-war levels, not the 75% reported by the Washington Post citing US intelligence.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking in Rome after meeting Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, said Washington was still expecting a response from Tehran to a one-page, 14-point memorandum of understanding aimed at establishing a 30-day ceasefire framework while the two sides negotiate a more lasting deal. "We'll see what the response entails. The hope is it's something that can put us into a serious process of negotiation," Rubio said. According to the New York Times, the proposal also covers reopening the Strait of Hormuz, sanctions relief and a basis for nuclear talks.

Rubio framed the dispute as one over freedom of navigation: "Iran now claims that they have a right to control an international waterway. What is the world going to do about that? ... If the world is prepared to accept that, then be ready because there are like ten other countries that are going to start doing the same thing." Pressed on red lines, he said: "Well the red line is clear, if they threaten Americans they are going to get blown up. How much clearer can you be than that?" Trump separately said on Truth Social that Iran was "led by MANIACS" and threatened "much harder and more violent" strikes if no deal is signed, while also confirming that Pakistan had asked Washington to pause its Project Freedom naval reopening operation during talks.

Meloni, who had previously called the US-Israeli strikes on Iran "outside international law," described the exchange as "a frank dialogue between allies." Their public differences widened over Trump's attacks on Pope Leo, whom he called "weak on crime" and "terrible on foreign policy"; Meloni called those remarks "unacceptable," and Trump replied that "she is the one who is unacceptable, because she doesn't care if Iran has a nuclear weapon." Italy and other European states have so far resisted US requests to provide naval escorts through Hormuz.

Other knock-on effects piled up across the day. NetBlocks said Iran's nationwide internet blackout had entered its 70th day, surpassing 1,656 hours and cutting off 90 million Iranians from the global internet, with senior officials granted "white" SIM cards for unrestricted access. Reuters, citing Copernicus satellite imagery and the Conflict and Environment Observatory's Leon Moreland, reported a roughly 45-square-kilometre grey-white slick consistent with an oil leak west of Iran's Kharg Island, from which 90 percent of Iranian crude is normally shipped. The UAE defence ministry said it intercepted two ballistic missiles and three drones, with three wounded; cumulative casualties since the war began on February 28 stand at 230 wounded and 13 dead, according to Emirati figures. ABC News and NBC News reported the US Justice Department and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission were examining at least four oil-market trades worth more than $2.6 billion that placed bets on falling prices shortly before Trump or Iranian officials made announcements during the war.

In Lebanon, Israel struck southern villages while Hezbollah fired rockets and mortar bombs into northern Israel and at Israeli forces in the south, in defiance of the existing ceasefire. The Lebanese health ministry reported between 5 and 12 deaths in Friday's strikes, including a civil defence rescue worker, and said total deaths since March 2 had reached 2,727; the Israeli military said two of its soldiers were wounded by Hezbollah explosive drones. Direct Israel-Lebanon talks are scheduled to resume in Washington on May 14 and 15. The Institute for Science and International Security reported separately that US-Israeli strikes on at least six Iranian nuclear sites since February 28 had pushed Tehran's potential breakout timeline from less than six months pre-war to nine months, one year, or two years, "and significantly less than 100 percent" certain.