The Iranian oil tanker Adrian Darya 1, blacklisted by Washington, has arrived in the Syrian port of Tartus.
Separately, Iran acknowledged on Sunday it had seized another ship and detained 12 Filipino crew. Iranian state TV said the tugboat was seized on suspicion of smuggling diesel fuel near the Strait of Hormuz.
Images from Maxar Technologies showed the Adrian Darya-1, formerly known as the Grace 1, about 4km off Syria’s coast. Iranian and Syrian officials have not acknowledged its presence.
Authorities in Tehran earlier said the 2.1 million barrels of crude oil on board had been sold to an unnamed buyer. That oil is worth about $190m on the global market, but it remains unclear who would buy the oil as they would face the threat of US sanctions.
The new images matched a black-and-white image earlier tweeted by US National Security Adviser John Bolton.
“Anyone who said the Adrian Darya-1 wasn’t headed to #Syria is in denial,” Mr Bolton tweeted. “We can talk, but #Iran’s not getting any sanctions relief until it stops lying and spreading terror!”
US prosecutors in federal court allege the Adrian Darya’s owner is Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which answers only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. On Wednesday, the US imposed new sanctions on an oil shipping network it alleged had ties to the Guard and offered up to $US15m for anyone with information that disrupted its paramilitary operations.
Read the article in The Australian (AFP, AP).