Washington has expressed confidence that talks with Iran will go ahead in Pakistan, and a senior Iranian official said Tehran was considering joining. But with the final hours of a two-week truce ticking by, there was little time left for the talks.
The US military said it had boarded the tanker Tifani "without incident". The ship, capable of carrying 2 million barrels of crude, last reported its position on Tuesday morning as near Sri Lanka in the Indian Ocean, according to MarineTraffic tracking data. It was close to fully loaded and had signalled Singapore as its destination.
There was no immediate comment from Iran on the boarding, but the move could complicate efforts to arrange peace talks: Iran has said the blockade of its ports amounts to a US violation of the truce, and that it will not negotiate while the blockade is being enforced.
Iranian sources told Reuters Tehran still had not made a firm decision on whether to attend another round of peace talks in Islamabad.
Pakistani officials said that if the delegations do attend, they will not arrive until Wednesday, leaving just hours to reach a deal before the two-week truce expires.
A first session of talks 10 days ago produced no agreement and Tehran had been ruling out a second round this week after the US refused to end its blockade and seized an Iranian cargo ship.
