U.S. fails to stop tanker’s departure

An Iranian oil tanker held for six weeks after being impounded left Gibraltar on Sunday, days after the authorities rejected a U.S. request to turn the vessel over to them.

A marine traffic monitoring site showed the tanker, the Grace 1, leaving Gibraltar’s waters. Iranian and Gibraltar news organizations confirmed that it had set sail.

The Grace 1 was seized July 4 by British marines and Gibraltar port officials who asserted that the tanker was carrying oil to Syria in violation of a European Union embargo. Iran soon detained a British-flagged tanker, the Stena Impero, in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow entryway to the Persian Gulf that is a conduit for about 20 per cent of the world’s crude oil.

The decision to release the Iranian ship was seen as a sign of easing of tensions between Gibraltar, a semi-autonomous British territory, London and Tehran. A confrontation between Iran and the West, particularly with the United States, has escalated in recent weeks.

The departure also raised expectations Iran, in turn, would relinquish the Stena Impero.

Gibraltar ordered the release of the Grace 1 on Thursday.

But on Sunday, the government of Gibraltar rejected the American request. It said the U.S. sanctions against Iran were not applicable in the European Union. Iran’s naval commander said Sunday his country was ready to dispatch its naval fleet to escort the oil tanker, renamed Adrian Darya-1.