Monday 26 August 2019 11:31 am

Iran sells oil from seized tanker a week after it was released

Iran this morning said that it has sold the oil being transported in one of its tankers, a week after it was released by authorities in Gibraltar.

The ship’s owner will decide where its next destination will be after the sale, said an Iranian government spokesperson, quoted by the IRIB news agency.

The Grace 1 tanker – which has since been renamed to Adrian Darya – had been wandering seemingly aimlessly in the Mediterranean after being released on 18 August. It had claimed at different times that both Greece and Turkey were its final destination. Its engines had also been running on low.

It had been stopped by Royal Marines in Gibraltar on suspicion that it was headed to Syria with its oil.

The country is currently under European sanctions as a civil war rages there.

The news came as Iran said it was sending its most advanced destroyer with long-range cruise missiles to the Gulf of Aden, between Yemen and the Horn of Africa.

The ship will provide security to Iranian ships, state-run Press TV reported. It will be accompanied by two smaller ships.

Tensions have been ramping up in the region for several months, with attacks on international tankers close to the vital Strait of Hormuz being blamed on Iran and its proxies.

Days after Britain seized the Grace 1, Iranian Revolutionary Guards boarded a British ship, the Stena Impero. It has not yet been released by Iran.

Last year US President Donald Trump sparked an escalation in already frosty relationships between Tehran and the West by ripping up an Obama-era agreement which limited the country’s nuclear programme.

Trump re-imposed sanctions on the Islamic Republic that had been lifted in exchange for Iran agreeing to halt its development of nuclear weapons.

Today the President declined to answer when asked if he would waive sanctions to bring Iran to the negotiating table.