Stockholm (AFP)
The Swedish tanker Stena Impero, seized by Iran in July in the Strait of Hormuz, was preparing Friday to leave after obtaining the final authorization, announced its Swedish owner.
"We are preparing to leave," Erick Hånell, managing director of Sweden's Stena Bulk, owner of Stena Impero, which is flying the British flag, told AFP two days after the Iranian authorities announced the finalization of the the seizure of the ship.
The 183-meter tanker, boarded on July 19 by the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological army of the Islamic Republic, was taken to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas (south) with a crew of 23 people on board. Seven of them were released on 4 September.
The Iranian authorities accused the tanker of ignoring distress calls and turning off his transponder after colliding with a fishing boat.
The seizure came a few hours after the Gibraltar court announced the prolongation of the seizure of Grace 1, an Iranian oil tanker arrested on 4 July by the police and customs of this British territory at the southernmost tip of the country. Spain. Iran has denied that this is retaliation.
After being allowed to leave on August 15, this oil tanker - renamed Adrian Darya 1 - had left Gibraltar on the 18th under the Iranian flag, despite a last-minute request from the United States to extend the detention of the ship, which ended to be placed on the blacklist of Washington.
The government of Gibraltar and the United States said they suspected the cargo was destined for Syria, target since the beginning of the 2011 conflict of sanctions affecting its oil sector. Tehran did not officially disclose the tanker's destination, but denied that it was going to Syria.
On September 10, London accused Iran of breaking its word by delivering oil to Syria.
© 2019 AFP