Tehran has been forced to take a 30-year-old oil tanker, Nasha, out of retirement as Kharg Island nears its maximum onshore capacity, Gulf News reported Friday.
The vessel, which has been anchored empty for the past several years, is being revived as floating storage for Iran’s teeming crude supply, the outlet reported.
The tired oil tanker is currently en route to the Islamic Republic’s primary crude oil export terminal, according to data from TankerTrackers.com.
The frantic move comes as Kharg Island’s remaining spare storage could fill up in just 12 to 13 days, with Iran’s net oil inflow running around 1 million barrels per day, analysts told Gulf News.
Congestion at the regime’s most critical oil stronghold could spiral into a major national economic problem for the regime, the outlet noted.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said Friday that Iran still has an “open window” for negotiations with the US — but warned that “the clock is not on their side” with the naval blockade targeting all ships coming from or traveling to Iranian ports.
In the wee hours one night this week, US forces seized a sanctioned Iranian-flagged oil tanker bound for Singapore as it tried to sneak past American ships in the darkness.
At least three other Iranian capital ships were intercepted in Asian waters near India, Malaysia, and Sri Lanka on Wednesday, according to American shipping and security sources.
And on Friday, the US added a third military aircraft carrier to its arsenal in the Middle East.
The USS George H.W. Bush — a 1,000-foot-long nuclear-powered carrier that can transport more than 80 aircraft — will significantly bolster the blockade of Iranian ports in the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran has made its displeasure with the arrangement frighteningly clear.
Three container ships were hit by Iranian gunfire in the critical chokehold on Wednesday – just hours after Trump announced he was indefinitely extending a cease-fire agreement with the Islamic Republic.
Iran said it captured two of the ships that were seeking to exit the Gulf via the Strait of Hormuz, marking its first seizures since the war began.
Senior Iranian leadership was expected to arrive in Pakistan on Friday or Saturday for talks, government sources from both countries told The Post.
However, the meeting will most likely be bilateral between Islamabad and Tehran only, an Iranian source said.
Trump threatened to finish the war “militarily with the other 25% of the targets” if Iranian leaders “don’t want to make a deal,” he warned Thursday.
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