A dramatic twist on the Iranian oil tanker immobilized in Gibraltar. The United States on Thursday (August 15th) called on the Gibraltar authorities to prolong the detention of the Iranian tanker, which they have held for a month, while the British territory was about to let the ship go.
While an agreement between London and Tehran seemed close at hand, Washington has filed a request for mutual legal assistance in the night of Wednesday to Thursday for the seizure of the ship, said Thursday the lawyer of the public prosecutor, Joseph Triay, before the Supreme Court of the British territory. "The US Department of Justice has requested the seizure of the Grace 1 by lightening a number of reasons that are being examined," said a spokesman for the Government of Gibraltar, adding that the hearing was postponed to 4 pm (2 pm GMT)
"Piracy"
The court had to decide whether to prolong the detention of the tanker Grace 1, suspected of carrying oil to Syria in violation of a European embargo. The end of the immobilization Grace 1 is currently set for Saturday, August 19.
Without this request received at 1:30 am (23:30 GMT Wednesday), "the ship would be gone," said Supreme Court President Anthony Dudley.
A request for mutual legal assistance usually involves asking a court, such as the one in Gibraltar, to enforce a decision of a foreign court, in this case a US court.
Meanwhile, the captain and three Grace 1 officers, who were on bail, were formally released, a spokesman for the Gibraltar government said.
The Grace 1, loaded with 2.1 million barrels of oil, was boarded on July 4 by the Gibraltar police and the British special forces, causing a diplomatic crisis between Tehran and London.
Tehran assures the tanker was sailing in international waters and accuses the United Kingdom of "piracy", claiming from the start that the British let him leave.
On 19 July Iran blocked a British oil tanker, the Stena Impero, in the Strait of Ormuz on suspicion of "non-compliance with the international maritime code".
Regain of diplomatic tensions
On the eve of the hearing, diplomacy seemed to be on the verge of clearing the crisis. "I hope this problem will be solved in the near future," a senior Iranian port authority official, Jalil Eslami, told the state-run Irna news agency on Tuesday.
According to him, the British were eager to solve the problem and documents had been exchanged.
In fact, this hearing before the Supreme Court "should have been different," said Joseph Triay, "this should be a request to lift the suspension order".
For Sanam Vakil, a researcher at the Chatham House Institute in London, the negotiations were likely aimed at getting Iran to agree not to deliver the cargo to Syria.
"If the Grace 1 is released, and it would probably be the case if Iran engaged behind the scenes not to export this oil to Syria, then it is likely that the Stena Impero will also be released," she said. to AFP before Thursday's hearing.
According to the analyst, Tehran suspects the British of having boarded the Grace 1 at the request of the United States, which they consider as the instigator of an "economic war against Iran in the long term to prevent the Iran to regain its market share in the oil sector, so Iran is also trying to defend its share. "
The standstill of the oil tanker and the resulting resurgence of diplomatic tension have clouded the efforts of European states attempting to rescue the nuclear deal with Iran, which the United States withdrew last year. heavy sanctions against the Islamic Republic.