Washington: Gibraltar’s government has released an Iranian supertanker detained on suspicion of violating European Union sanctions on oil exports to Syria, authorities said, in a move likely to soothe tensions with Iran even as it drew opposition from the Trump administration.
Britain’s Foreign Office, however, warned Iran to abide by the assurances it provided to Gibraltar that led to the ship’s release.
In a statement hours after a Gibraltar court released the Grace I, British authorities insisted they would not allow Iran or anyone else to bypass European Union sanctions meant to punish Syria for using chemical weapons against its own people.
But the UK also insisted that there should be “no comparison or linkage” between the enforcement of sanctions and “Iran’s unacceptable and illegal seizure of, and attacks on, commercial shipping vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.”
Britain wants Iran to release the British-flagged oil tanker Stena Impero, which was seized by the Islamic Republic after British Marines took over the Grace I.
The Grace 1 tanker was seized last month near Gibraltar, a British overseas territory, with 2.1 million barrels of oil, which the government suspected was destined for the Syrian port Baniyas. Its detention was at the centre of a brewing crisis between Iran and the British government, which helped Gibraltar authorities impound the ship.
Read the article Erin Cunningham and Adam Taylor in The Sydney Morning Herald.