• Vessels approx. 25 nautical miles offshore, outside SL territorial sea: Foreign Min.
• Ministry rejects reports of formal US–SL talks on denying supplies for Iranian vessels 

The Government has no plans to provide supplies or other facilities to Iranian vessels currently positioned off the island as they remain outside Sri Lanka’s territorial sea, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment, and Tourism told The Sunday Morning, amid heightened scrutiny over United States sanctions targeting Iran and entities dealing with sanctioned parties.

Ministry Public Diplomacy Division Director General Thushara Rodrigo said that the Iranian vessels were currently located about 25 nautical miles off Sri Lanka and therefore beyond the country’s 12-nautical mile territorial sea.

“They are not in Sri Lankan waters,” he said, adding that the Government had no plans to provide supplies or facilities to the vessels.

Rodrigo was responding to international reports that Iranian and Iran-linked tankers have been stranded in waters near Sri Lanka and elsewhere in Asia as Washington intensifies its sanctions campaign against Tehran.

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that around 20 Iranian oil tankers had been stranded near Sri Lanka and Malaysia, with some running low on essential supplies including food, fuel, and fresh water. The newspaper further reported that US officials had pressured Sri Lanka to prevent local operators from supplying sanctioned vessels, warning of possible exposure to secondary sanctions.

Rodrigo, however, said some reports had created a misleading impression that US warnings concerning secondary sanctions had been specifically directed at Sri Lanka.

He stressed that the US sanctions regime and the potential secondary sanctions risks faced by parties dealing with sanctioned Iranian entities were not measures applicable exclusively to Sri Lanka.

The US Department of the Treasury launched Operation Economic Outcast on 24 August, significantly expanding sanctions risks for parties continuing certain business with Iran and warning that entities facilitating money laundering or sanctions evasion on behalf of Tehran risked being cut off from the US financial system.

The US Treasury has also targeted Iran’s maritime and sanctions-evasion networks, including shipping facilitators, vessel brokers, service providers, and financial intermediaries linked to Iranian petroleum and other sanctioned activities.

Washington further expanded its Iran sanctions on Thursday (1), targeting the country’s automotive and rail sectors as well as foreign suppliers and facilitators. The Treasury said that the measures formed part of Operation Economic Outcast and reiterated the secondary sanctions risks faced by foreign parties conducting certain business with sanctioned Iranian entities.

Rodrigo also rejected reports suggesting that formal discussions had taken place between the US Embassy in Colombo and the Foreign Ministry on denying supplies to the Iranian vessels.

However, Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath had previously confirmed that the US Embassy had communicated with the Foreign Ministry regarding Iranian vessels operating in international waters near Sri Lanka. This, after the Deputy Minister of Ports and Civil Aviation told The Sunday Morning in August that the US had not notified Colombo through official channels. 

Speaking at the Cabinet media briefing on 8 September, Herath claimed that the embassy had informed the ministry about the vessels and inquired whether Sri Lankan authorities were aware of their presence and monitoring them. The Defence and Ports Ministries had subsequently been informed and the vessels had been monitored, he said.

Therefore, the publicly acknowledged communication concerned the presence and monitoring of the vessels, while Rodrigo rejected reports that formal discussions had taken place with the US Embassy concerning the provision or denial of supplies to them.

Separately, Deputy Minister of Ports and Civil Aviation Janitha Ruwan Kodithuwakku was reported last month as saying that information received from the US Embassy concerning vessels sanctioned by Washington was being communicated through Sri Lankan authorities to maritime service providers in an effort to protect local companies from possible secondary sanctions exposure.

Earlier, Herath said that Sri Lankan authorities had identified 47 vessels operating in international waters in the vicinity of the island, including several Iranian vessels, but that none were within Sri Lanka’s territorial sea.

He also said at the time that none of the vessels had requested facilities or assistance from the Government and that no such facilities had been provided.