U.S. forces boarded and searched tanker M/T Charminar in Arabian Sea under unauthorized Iran blockade

On July 25, 2026, U.S. Central Command announced that its boarding teams had, "earlier today," completed a verification boarding of the Comoros-flagged oil tanker M/T Charminar in the Arabian Sea, inspecting its cargo and documentation before releasing it to continue its voyage. The action was part of the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports that CENTCOM reimposed on July 14, 2026; CENTCOM said that by July 25 it had redirected 12 commercial vessels attempting to breach the blockade, disabled two that did not comply, and boarded two — including the Charminar — for verification. Maritime tracking firm TankerTrackers identified the Charminar as having been placed under U.S. sanctions in July 2025 for carrying Iranian fuel to Houthi forces in Yemen as part of the Shamkhani smuggling network.

The blockade is enforced entirely on the president's own authority: Congress never authorized the underlying military campaign against Iran, and in June 2026 both chambers passed a War Powers Resolution directing the president to end hostilities, which the administration has not complied with. The Charminar boarding is the first boarding-only event of this blockade-enforcement campaign recorded here — distinct from the lethal and disabling strikes carried out in the same campaign, including the fatal June 10 strike on the M/T Settebello and the July 24 disabling of the M/T Lavine — because it ended with the vessel searched and released rather than damaged or its crew harmed. That distinction is also why this entry does not tag extrajudicial-actions: that abuse requires state action that punishes or sanctions someone without lawful adjudication, and a boarding that concludes with the vessel cleared to continue its voyage is a search, not a punishment or sanction.

Date note: initial reporting on this boarding was inconsistent — SOFX's prose placed it on July 24, the same day as the Lavine disabling, while Army Recognition described it as happening "a day later." CENTCOM's own July 25 statement on X, cited directly above, describes the Charminar boarding as having occurred "earlier today" relative to that July 25 post — distinct from the same statement's explicit dating of the Lavine disabling to July 24 — and RFE/RL's same-day report likewise states the boarding took place on July 25. This entry dates the event to July 25 on the strength of the primary CENTCOM statement, which this recorder retrieved directly.