An Israeli activist organisation with links to Mossad is seeking to block the return of an Iranian oil tanker seized by Royal Marines off Gibraltar, threatening British diplomatic efforts to defuse tensions in the Gulf.
Lawyers for Shurat HaDin will file a petition in the Supreme Court of Gibraltar today seeking an injunction to seize the vessel and its cargo. They want them to be used to pay damages for the victims of terrorist acts allegedly sponsored by Iran.
The organisation has won a series of judgments in US courts holding Iran responsible for the murder of Israeli-Americans by Islamist groups including Hamas and Hezbollah.
Under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act Tehran was found liable for hundreds of millions of dollars in damages, but only a tiny fraction has ever been recovered through seized Iranian assets. The act does not apply automatically in courts outside the United States but they can be petitioned to consider an American ruling.
A team of British lawyers, led by Jonathan Goldberg, QC, has also written to the port authorities in Gibraltar to demand that the tanker, Grace 1, is impounded while inspections are carried out to determine its seaworthiness. Shurat HaDin, whose president Nitsana Darshan-Leitner says that she has held regular briefings with Mossad, the Israeli spy agency, claims to have acquired intelligence suggesting that the tanker is unfit to sail.
Read the article by Catherine Philp in The Australian.