Iran claims that it has sold the oil from the tanker Adrian Darya, that was released by Gibraltar after weeks in the custody of British Royal Marines, according to IRIB news agency, which quoted an Iranian government spokesman.
As Reuters informed, Iran did not identify the recipient of the oil carried by the Adrian Darya tanker. He added that the owner and purchaser of this oil will now decide the destination of the cargo. Currently, the tanker is located south of Greece.
Previous information were citing the vessel as heading to the port of Kalamata, in southern Greece. However, the Greek Government informed that it would not offer any facilities to the ship.
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The ship was also renamed from Grace 1 during its detention off Gibraltar, and was released after a five-week standoff over whether it was carrying Iranian oil to Syria, thus breaching European Union sanctions.
After being released, a US federal court ordered its seizure on different grounds, but that petition was denied by Gibraltar.
The Strait of Hormuz experienced an increased tension for months now. It first started when the UK arrested the Indian Captain and Chief Officer of the Iranian tanker ‘Grace 1’, a few days after the ship was seized suspected of breaching EU sanctions by shipping oil to Syria.
Later on, in what is said to be an act of retaliation, Iran seized Stena Impero. Yet, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard seized another foreign vessel, supporting that it was transmitting 700,000 litres of oil to ‘some Arab countries in the Persian Gulf.’
