The release of "Grace 1" .. So were the reactions in Iran

Jazeera Net-Tehran

After the British government authorities of Gibraltar allowed the Iranian tanker Grace 1 to leave its territorial waters, Iranians demanded that London prosecute piracy of the tanker and the damage done to Iran, the importer and the owner of the tanker.

The Supreme Court of Gibraltar on Thursday decided to release the tanker immediately, hours after the release of its crew, which observers considered to have exceeded the demands and US pressure to extend its detention.

The Iranian military establishment briefly commented on the release of the tanker by General Ali Fadavi, the deputy commander-in-chief of the Revolutionary Guards, that "all the arrogant in the world will undoubtedly submit to the steadfastness of the Front of Right and will surrender to it."

No guarantees of release
The Iranian Foreign Ministry denied, in a statement issued by her British counterpart about the guarantees provided by Tehran to the Government of Gibraltar that the tanker would not go to Syria.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif published a letter previously presented by his embassy to London confirming that the destination of the tanker "Grace 1" was not subject to the sanctions of the European Union and will not be, and that international laws do not allow the Union to apply the sanctions imposed on one side, to third parties .

Zarif attached the letter, which he published in both Persian and English, to a tweet in which he wrote that "no one can change the truth, that the arrest (Grace 1) was not 100% legal."

The Iranian ambassador to London, Hamid Baidi-Nejad, confirmed that Tehran had not made any written pledges or guarantees regarding the release or destination of the tanker, adding that from the beginning we confirmed that Grace 1 was not destined for Syria.

Baidi Ahmadinejad spoke of "desperate" efforts by the United States to prevent the release of the tanker, but suffered a "terrible defeat", while Zarif accused Washington of trying to piracy by seeking to prevent the authorities of Gibraltar to release "Grace 1".

The Mediterranean sea
Jalil Aslami, assistant maritime affairs of the Iranian Ports and Shipping Organization, said the destination would be "ports in the Mediterranean" without specifying the country to which it is heading. However, some Iranian media have spoken of Morocco as the ultimate destination.

In a press statement on Iranian television, Eslami reiterated his country's rejection of the detention of the British tanker Grace 1, which he described as "came in response to US orders to put more pressure on the Islamic Republic," adding that London had no evidence to continue holding the tanker it stopped in international waters.

Islami denied a deal to trade the two Iranian tankers "Grace 1" and "Stena Impero" British, and spoke of his country's intention to sue Britain for the damage caused by the arrest of the supertanker for more than forty days, as well as the economic burdens imposed on the importer and the owner For Grace 1.

Logic and power
For his part, former Iranian diplomat Hadi Afqhi, considered the release of the tanker political and human victory for his country on what he called "British arrogance", stressing that the arrest of Iran, the British tanker "Stina Impero" for violating international laws in the Gulf waters contributed to the release of "Grace 1".

He stressed in an interview singled out to Al Jazeera Net, that the release process shows that Britain's piracy of an Iranian oil tanker, contrary to international shipping laws, pointing out that there is no barter between Tehran and London for the exchange of tankers and that the fate of the British tanker in the hands of the judiciary in Iran.

He urged the Iranian diplomatic apparatus to move to condemn London in international legal circles, and demanding financial compensation for the illegal detention of a giant oil tanker, stressing the need for London to apologize to the Iranian people for committing "maritime terrorism" and the process of "theft", as he put it.

Referring to the victory of the "Iranian logic force over the logic of British power," the former Iranian diplomat recalled his country's efforts to invite the Gulf states to sit at the negotiating table in order to ensure the security of Gulf waters and block the way for foreign countries that want to tamper with the security of the region.

He said that Britain's failure to comply with the US request to extend the detention of "Grace 1" is a slap in Washington, adding that Iran and the countries in the region are responsible for the security of the region, not Washington, and that America has become alone in the formation of a maritime insurance alliance in the Gulf waters.

Resilience and resistance
While observers in Iran saw that the release of "Grace 1" paves the way for an Iranian operation similar to the release of the British tanker "Stina Impero," the chirps on social networks demanded their country's government to seize the British tanker for another two weeks, bringing the period of detention to the number of days that were stopped Where the Iranian tanker Gibraltar.

The pro-conservative calculations on the social networks, said that the release of "Grace 1" came out of steadfastness, as the editor-in-chief of the news agency Tasnim Qian Abdullah wished Tehran to adopt this option in dealing with the West on the nuclear deal.

Political activist Ali Khodarian also pointed to the Iranian leader's famous saying "there will be no war and we will not negotiate with America." He said in a tweet on Twitter that the release of the tanker without making concessions is the fruit of the logic of resistance.

The Gibraltar authorities seized the tanker "Grace 1" loaded with two million barrels of Iranian oil in early July, on suspicion of violating the sanctions imposed by the European Union on the Syrian regime, a charge denied by Tehran.