Freed tanker ‘has sold its oil to Syria’
Iran
Iran claims that a tanker impounded in Gibraltar for six weeks has offloaded its oil in Syria, despite Britain saying it had secured written guarantees that the cargo would not be sold to the Assad regime.
The UK’S Foreign and Commonwealth Office has not commented on the apparent breach of the agreement under which the Iranian tanker Adrian Darya 1, which was called Grace 1 when it was seized by Royal Marines in July, was freed last month.
British officials may be awaiting further confirmation.
Although an Iranian government spokesman confirmed claims by state media that the vessel had sold and transferred its 2.1 million barrels of crude oil, monitors of the trade said this was not visible from satellite images. There were also signs that Iran was keeping the other half of its agreement. The spokesman said paperwork was being completed for the release of the Stena Impero, a Swedish-owned, British-flagged tanker seized in the Gulf in what was taken to be a tit-for-tat move later in July. Tanker tracking and oil trade websites have watched the Adrian Darya 1 since it was allowed to leave Gibraltar, as has the United States, which wanted to prevent it selling oil to any buyer.
It was impounded by the Gibraltar authorities with the help of Britain on suspicion of breaching EU sanctions, which forbid the sale of crude oil to Syria’s two main refineries.
After leaving Gibraltar the Adrian Darya 1 sailed east and set course for Greece then Turkey, finally arriving off the coast of Lebanon.
At the end of last week it headed north towards Syria and by Saturday it reached the port of Tartus, home to a Russian naval base. This would have protected it from intervention by US or other vessels if it did offload its cargo to another ship.
The Tankertrackers website claims that the vessel is too large for any of Syria’s standard oil berths and would need to offload its oil, worth about US$130 million (NZ$202M), via smaller vessels, a standard practice. However, the website said yesterday that there was no sign that the tanker had done so, despite the Iranian government’s claim.
Britain is resisting pressure to match President Trump’s imposition of sanctions on Iranian oil exports and any entity that buys them. The release of the Adrian Darya 1 upset John Bolton, the hawkish US national security adviser. ‘‘Anyone who said the Adrian Darya 1 wasn’t headed to Syria is in denial,’’ he tweeted at the weekend.
‘‘Tehran thinks it’s more important to fund the murderous Assad regime than provide for its own people. We can talk, but Iran’s not getting any sanctions relief until it stops lying and spreading terror!’’
– The Times