President Masoud Pezeshkian acknowledged on May 18 that Iran had “run into problems” exporting oil, the first such admission by a senior official since the United States imposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports last month.

The US Navy has sought since April 13 to intercept Iran-linked vessels in the Sea of Oman and the Indian Ocean in an effort to pressure the Islamic Republic into striking a deal to end the war that broke out in late February.

The blockade aims in part to fill Iran’s oil storage tanks by preventing exports.

“They blocked the route and we are not exporting oil. We cannot export oil easily,” Pezeshkian said in a direct acknowledgement that the blockade was delivering, according to ISNA.

He criticised those inside Iran, claiming that the country had not faced trouble in exporting crude oil.

“Such claims that we have not encountered problems are just talk,” the president added.

During the 39-day war triggered by US and Israeli air strikes in late February, Iran sold oil at maximum capacity after effectively shutting the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf only days into the conflict and allowing passage to only a limited number of ships and tankers, including vessels linked to the country itself.

There is no precise data on Iranian oil exports since the blockade came into force, but tracking companies, including TankerTrackers.com, say exports have continued, though at significantly lower volumes, while Iran has been storing crude in onshore tanks and supertankers at sea.

Bloomberg reported on May 18 that 23 tankers had been spotted around Iran’s main oil export terminal, calling it “the largest cluster” at Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf since the siege began.

It said the carriers were in anchorages around Kharg, berthed at crude or liquefied petroleum gas-loading jetties.

US President Donald Trump claimed last week aboard Air Force One that Iran “had done no business” over the past two and a half weeks and was losing “$500mn a day.”