IRAN RELEASES SEIZED UK-FLAGGED OIL TANKER
Rouhani wants N-deal back; US sending troops to Saudi Arabia
TEHRAN/ NEW YORK/ WASHINGTON: The UK-flagged oil tanker Stena Impero, which had been held off the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas for more than two months, set sail on Friday. The ship’s seizure was widely seen as a tit-for-tat move after authorities in the British overseas territory of Gibraltar detained an Iranian tanker on suspicion it was shipping oil to Syria in breach of EU sanctions.
Tehran denied the cases were related but a Gibraltar court last month ordered the Iranian tanker’s release despite a US legal bid to keep it in detention.
“The Stena Impero started sailing from the mooring towards the Persian Gulf’s international waters today,” Hormozgan province’s maritime organisation said on its website. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps seized the vessel in the Strait of Hormuz on July 19 after surrounding it with attack boats and rappelling onto its deck. It was impounded off the port of Bandar Abbas for allegedly turning off its transponder after hitting a fishing boat. Seven of its 23 crew members were released on September 4.
ROUHANI SAYS HE REJECTED US OFFER
The US sent a message to European leaders that it was willing to lift all sanctions on Iran, according to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who said he had rejected talks while punitive U.S. sanctions remained in place.
“It was up for debate what sanctions will be lifted and they (the US) had said clearly that we will lift all sanctions,” his website quoted him as saying. US President Donald Trump tweeted on Friday he had rejected Iran’s request to lift sanctions. “I said, of course, NO!,” he said.
US TO SEND 200 TROOPS, MISSILES TO SAUDI
The US announced the deployment of 200 troops and Patriot missiles to Saudi Arabia to help the country’s defence in the wake of last month’s attacks on oil installations.
The US defence department said the deployment would involve one battery of the surface-to-air missiles, along with four Sentinel radars.
Two more Patriot batteries and one THAAD ballistic missile interception system are being readied, Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said.