00:18The U.S. Navy is patrolling the Strait of Hormuz. Warships, aircraft, a full naval blockade designed
00:27to choke Iran's oil exports, and on May 7, 2026, a sanctioned Iranian tanker sailed straight
00:34through it. Tracking beacons switched on, in broad daylight, completely unchallenged. This
00:41is either the biggest embarrassment for U.S. naval power in years or a very deliberate message from
00:46Tehran. The ship is called the Vena, also tracked as the Valley, built in 1998, 159 meters long,
00:55an LPG and chemical tanker flying the flag of Botswana. On paper, just another aging cargo
01:02vessel. But this ship has a history. It is already on the U.S. sanctions list, blacklisted for running
01:09Iranian LPG shipments and for being a regular supplier to Houthi-controlled ports in Yemen,
01:15specifically Ras Issa, a port the U.S. has repeatedly flagged as a lifeline for the Houthis.
01:21This ship was not some unknown vessel that slipped through. Washington knew exactly who
01:27this was, and it got through anyway. Here is what makes this extraordinary. The Vena entered
01:34the blockade zone with its AIS, its Automatic Identification System, switched on. AIS is the
01:40maritime equivalent of a mobile phone signal. It broadcasts the ship's name, position, speed,
01:46and destination to anyone monitoring. The U.S. Navy monitors it. Satellite trackers monitor it.
01:53Iran International monitored it. The ship was not hiding, it was announcing itself. And it brought
01:59company. A larger Iranian supertanker entered alongside it. Together, these two vessels just
02:06handed Iran additional storage capacity and more hulls for future exports, right under the nose of the
02:12blockade. The Vena arrived empty. It will not leave that way. And this was not a one-time breach.
02:20Independent maritime trackers have documented at least 34 Iran-linked tankers bypassing the
02:26blockade. 19 exiting the Gulf, 15 entering. Outbound ships alone carried an estimated 10.7 million barrels
02:35of Iranian crude, worth nearly $910 million at discounted prices. One Iranian supertanker called
02:43the Huge reportedly carried 1.9 million barrels undetected, valued at $220 million, all the way to
02:51the Asia-Pacific. Meanwhile, satellite imagery shows loading continuing simultaneously at Iranian oil
02:57terminals. The blockade that Washington says is working, the data says something very different.
03:04Project Freedom paused. Saudi Arabia shut the door. Kuwait said no. And now a sanctioned Iranian tanker
03:12sails through the blockade. AIS on, supertanker alongside, without a single shot fired or a single
03:19vessel turned back. Iran is not breaking the blockade by force, it is walking through it. And every tanker that
03:26gets through sends the same message to the Gulf, to China, to the Houthis, and to the oil markets,
03:33that U.S. enforcement here has limits. The Strait of Hormuz remains the most consequential 33 kilometers
03:40of water on earth, and right now Iran is winning the battle for it. Tell us what you think. Is
03:46the U.S.
03:47blockade already failing?
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