President Trump’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has been successful in preventing ships from coming and going from Iranian ports, US Central Command announced Tuesday.

“During the first 24 hours, no ships made it past the US blockade and 6 merchant vessels complied with direction from US forces to turn around to re-enter an Iranian port on the Gulf of Oman,” CENTCOM said in a statement. 

Tracking data, however, shows that at least four Iran-linked ships, including a Chinese tanker, passed through the strait on Tuesday — but CENTCOM’s statement suggests those boats did so during the blockade’s grace period and with the permission of the navy.  

CENTCOM did not elaborate on which ships were stopped or on the sanctioned tankers that have passed through.   

The military added that the blockade was being enforced by 10,000 service members and about 15 warships patrolling the waterway.  

Any Iran-linked ship violating the blockade will be taken to holding areas in ports along the Arabian Sea or Indian Ocean until a permanent location is worked out, two US officials told the Wall Street Journal. 

Two of the four Iran-linked ships that went through the strait Tuesday — the Christianna and Elpis — had previously been at Iranian ports, according to MarineTraffic data.

The Christianna, a Liberia-flagged cargo ship, left the area Monday night, claiming not to be carrying any cargo, according to the trade analysis firm Kpler.

The Elips, a Comoros-flagged methanol carrier, traveled under the name Chamtang last year and had already been hit with US sanctions over its connection with Iran’s shadow fleet. 

The Rich Starry and Murlikishan tankers, which also are already under US sanctions for Iran-related trade, sailed through the critical oil chokepoint overnight.

The Rich Starry, which is owned by a Chinese shipping company, initially appeared to halt its journey away from an Iranian port and back to China but eventually continued through and out of the strait to make its way back home, the New York Times reported.

The Shanghai Xuanrun Shipping Company tanker is carrying about 250,000 barrels of methanol, according to maritime trackers.

The medium-range tanker was previously sailing under the name Full Star, which was blacklisted by Washington in 2023 for helping Tehran skirt oil sanctions. 

The Murlikishan, a Madagascar-flagged ship that had previously been used to transport sanctioned Russian and Iranian oil, had been scheduled to load fuel in Iraq later this week, according to trackers.  

Dozens of ships are under sanction by the US State Department for their alleged involvement in Iran’s shadow fleet, which would normally prohibit their use in global trade, as the entities using the vessels risk having their assets frozen.  

Trump vowed on Monday to fight back against Iran’s “WORLD EXTORTION” and ensure that no one paying tolls to the regime would get through the waterway after cease-fire negotiations fell through.

The move is also likely to put pressure on Iran’s already struggling economy by dealing a blow to its oil industry. 

In retaliation, Tehran threatened to hit naval ships going through the strait and to retaliate against its Gulf neighbors’ ports.

China’s foreign ministry Tuesday slammed the US blockade as “dangerous ⁠and irresponsible,” warning that it would only aggravate tensions in the already volatile Middle East.  

“We urge relevant parties to honor the ceasefire agreement, stick to the direction of peace talks and take concrete actions to de-escalate the situation so that normal traffic via the Strait will be able to resume as soon as possible,” ministry rep Lin Jian said in a statement. 

China, which gets more than half its crude from the Middle East, serves as Iran’s biggest trading partner, buying about 80% of Tehran’s oil. 

Beijing did not make mention of its ships passing through the strait under the blockade.

Since the US-Israeli war against Iran began Feb. 28, only a handful of ships have passed through the Strait of Hormuz every day, a far cry from the more than 130 that previously crossed every day. 

The majority of ships that had continued to go through the strait have links to either Iran and China. `

With Post wires