This article is from the source 'rtcom' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.rt.com/news/466779-iranian-tanker-leaves-gibraltar/
The article has changed 5 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 2 | Version 3 |
|---|---|
| Iranian tanker leaves Gibraltar despite US demands to seize it | Iranian tanker leaves Gibraltar despite US demands to seize it |
| (30 minutes later) | |
| The Iranian oil tanker Grace 1, freshly released by Gibraltar and renamed Adrian Darya 1, has reportedly set sail, maritime tracking data shows. It comes after a last-minute US request demanding its seizure was rejected. | The Iranian oil tanker Grace 1, freshly released by Gibraltar and renamed Adrian Darya 1, has reportedly set sail, maritime tracking data shows. It comes after a last-minute US request demanding its seizure was rejected. |
| The tanker left the Gibraltar port about midnight local time, the shipping data showed. | The tanker left the Gibraltar port about midnight local time, the shipping data showed. |
| Excited ship spotters took to Twitter to report that marine traffic monitoring sites showed the vessel moving towards open seas. However, its speed soon came to a near-halt, prompting discussions as to whether it was a technical problem or a false start. | Excited ship spotters took to Twitter to report that marine traffic monitoring sites showed the vessel moving towards open seas. However, its speed soon came to a near-halt, prompting discussions as to whether it was a technical problem or a false start. |
| About half an hour later, however, the tanker picked speed, reaching Spanish waters and heading to international waters. | |
| The tanker with some 2.1 million barrels of oil on board was seized by the UK outside Gibraltar early July. Washington accused the then Panama-flagged ship of transporting the crude to Syria in violation of the US sanctions. | |
| Last week, despite the US authorities’ vocal objections, Gibraltar decided to release the vessel, claiming that it had received assurances that it was not bound for Syria. Teheran, however, subsequently, denied that it had provided any such guarantees. | |
| On Friday, in a last-ditch attempt to keep the tanker in custody, Washington issued a warrant, seeking the tanker’s arrest, all of its oil and what is said was nearly $1 million in an unnamed US bank, while accusing it of supporting the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) by illegally using the US banking system to finance the shipment. | |
| The British overseas territory pushed back against the demand on Sunday, telling Washington that it was not going implement the US sanctions on Iran, which are much broader than those imposed by the EU. | |
| Think your friends would be interested? Share this story! |