Athens (AFP)
Greece has not received a request for permission to anchor in a Greek port of the Iranian oil tanker Adrian Darya who has just left Gibraltar, said Tuesday the Minister of the Merchant Navy.
"There is no official demand for the arrival of the Iranian tanker in a Greek port," Ioannis Plakiotakis told Greek media in the morning.
"We are following his navigation and we are cooperating with the Greek Foreign Minister," he added.
According to a Greek diplomatic source, quoted by the semi-official Ana, Athens "is in contact via the diplomatic channel" with the United States, whose "positions on the case are known and communicated not only in Greece but also to all the countries and ports of the Mediterranean ".
The minister was questioned about information from the marine traffic monitoring site, Marine Traffic, that the tanker, which had been immobilized since 4 July off Gibraltar, weighed anchor on Sunday and stood on Tuesday at a distance of 100 kilometers. northwest of Oran (Algeria).
According to the site, the ship could reach the Greek port of Kalamata, in the south of Peloponnese. But the port authorities of this city have not confirmed the information.
It would take five days of tanker sailing to reach Kalamata from Gilbratar, according to a local port source.
An Iranian port official said on Monday that the tanker was in international waters, but it remains a total blur on its final destination and the fate of its cargo. The Gibraltar authorities have never confirmed their departure.
The authorities of the British territory had boarded the ship, suspected of transporting oil to Syria, in application of the European sanctions against that country. He was cleared Thursday to leave when Tehran assured that the cargo of 2.1 million barrels would not be delivered to Syria.
The United States wanted the tanker to be boarded again, a possibility that would have "serious consequences" according to Tehran.
© 2019 AFP