A tanker carrying Iranian oil, released by Gibraltar authorities after being held since July 4, is preparing to set sail into the Mediterranean, a senior Iranian shipping official said yesterday.
The ship’s seizure, with the help of British Royal Marines, had triggered a sharp deterioration in relations between Tehran and London and the tit-for-tat detention by Iran of the British-flagged tanker Stena Impero.
The Grace 1 would be renamed and switch to the Iranian flag for its onward journey, the deputy head of Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organisation, Jalil Eslami, told state television.
Photo: AFP
“At the owner’s request, the Grace 1 will depart for the Mediterranean after being reflagged under the Islamic Republic of Iran’s flag and renamed as Adrian Darya for the voyage,” Eslami said.
“The ship was of Russian origin and Panama-flagged and is carrying 2 million barrels of Iranian oil,” he added.
Gibraltar’s Supreme Court ordered the tanker released on Thursday after the British overseas territory said it had received written assurances from Iran that the Grace 1 would not head to any country subject to EU sanctions.
The ship had been detained on suspicion that its cargo was destined for the Banias oil refinery in Syria in breach of an EU embargo.
ZERO ASSURANCES
Iran denied it had provided any assurances to secure the ship’s release, saying Gibraltar was only seeking to “save face.”
“Iran has given no assurances over the Grace 1 not going to Syria to secure its release,” the state broadcaster’s youth Web site quoted Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Abbas Mousavi as saying yesterday.
“The tanker’s destination was not Syria ... and even if it was, it did not concern anyone else,” he said.
Hours before the court’s ruling, US President Donald Trump’s administration, which has waged a campaign of “maximum pressure” against Iran, launched a last-minute legal move demanding that the Gibraltar authorities extend the vessel’s detention.
Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted that the US attempt at “piracy” had failed, saying it showed the Trump administration’s “contempt for the law.”
Following the Grace 1’s release, the UK renewed its demand that Iran release the British-flagged tanker it seized in the Strait of Hormuz on July 19.
Tehran charged that Stena Impero had contravened “international maritime rules,” but the move was widely seen as retaliation for the detention of the Grace 1.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not