Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Iran announces oil sale to non-U.S. buyer
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran on Monday announced that the 2.1 million barrels of crude aboard an Iranian oil tanker pursued by the U.S. have been sold to an unnamed buyer.
The announcement by government spokesman Ali Rabiei is the latest twist in the saga of the Adrian Darya 1, which had been known as the Grace 1 when authorities seized the vessel off Gibraltar on July 4, on suspicion of breaking European Union sanctions targeting Syria.
The ship became the center of a crisis between the U.S. and Iran, and on Monday the vessel continued its voyage in the Mediterranean Sea.
Speaking to journalists Monday in Tehran, Rabiei declined to name the oil’s buyer or terms for the sale. At market rates, the crude oil aboard the Adrian Darya would be worth about $130 million. However, anyone buying it likely would be targeted by U.S. sanctions.
“The buyer of the oil decides where its destination is,” Rabiei said, adding that the world is “witnessing the wrong policy by the U.S. in monitoring and intervention in others’ internal affairs.”
In U.S. federal court documents, authorities claim that the Adrian Darya’s true owner is Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, a paramilitary organization answerable only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The U.S. declared the Revolutionary Guard a foreign terrorist organization in April, the first time America named a military force of a nation as such, giving it the legal power to issue a warrant for the vessel’s seizure. However, that would require another nation to acknowledge the writ.