Oil Tankers U-Turn in Hormuz as US-Iran Talks Break Down

Two empty crude tankers attempted to make their way through the Strait of Hormuz and into the Persian Gulf on Sunday, only to make last-minute U-turns just as peace negotiations between the US and Iran broke down, threatening a fragile ceasefire.

Two very large crude carriers and one Aframax-class vessel — all without direct links to Iran — began to approach the narrow waterway from the Gulf of Oman late on Saturday, ship-tracking data show, arriving near Iran’s Larak island early on Sunday. At that effective checkpoint, Iraq-bound Agios Fanourios I and Pakistan-flagged Shalamar, destined for Das island in the United Arab Emirates, turned back.