Iranian tanker seized in Gibraltar for one month changes name and heads to Greece

The Iranian oil tanker who left Gibraltar Sunday after more than a month of seizure by the British authorities he sailed Monday in the Mediterranean for Greeceas indicated by different marine traffic monitoring sites.

"Grace 1" was captured by the British Marine Corps on July 4 after crossing the Strait of Gibraltar, accused of transporting oil to Syria, an operation prohibited by the European Union (EU) as part of its sanctions against the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

As a condition for his release, Iran must have made a commitment not to release oil into that country. For this reason, the "Grace 1", renamed "Adrian Darya 1", headed for the port of Kalamata in Greece, according to the special site Refinitiv, cited by Reutersand MarineTraffic, consulted by Infobae.

Greece has not yet confirmed nor denied that Kalamata is the new final destination of the Iranian ship. The Persians did not want to know where the crude would be unloaded, baderting that the latent threat of US sanctions "does not allow them to be more transparent".

The sources said the tanker was sailing Monday in international waters in the Alboran Sea at a speed of 7.9 knots (about 14.6 km / h) heading east.

L & # 39; agency Reuters indicated that it is expected that the "Adrian Darya 1" arrives in Kalamata with a load of two million barrels of oil (worth about $ 120 million at the current price of $ 59.45 a barrel of Brent) Sunday at 00:00 GMT.

Washington's justification was that the tanker was tied to the body of Iranian Revolutionary Guards, an organization he recently designated as a terrorist and subject to economic sanctions.

That did not end the problem, since the United States could again request the seizure of the ship in another jurisdiction, for example in Greece if the ship finally landed in Kalamata.

In addition, the severe economic sanctions imposed by Washington on Iran to prevent the Persian country from selling its oil and to touch any entity, company or individual of any nationality having commercial relations with Tehran, which has significantly reduced their available markets.

For these reasons, Any country that agrees to unload Iranian oil faces a potential diplomatic crisis with the United States and is subject to sanctions.

The seizure of "Grace 1 / Adrian Darya 1" also raised tensions between the Iranian regime and the international community, already exacerbated by clashes between Tehran and Washington over the future of the nuclear deal that President Donald Trump retired in 2018.

Almost immediately after the facts in Gibraltar, Iran has seized the British oil tanker "Stena Impero" in the Strait of Ormuz, in the Persian Gulf. Although Tehran accused the ship of "smuggling", its capture was considered a retaliation for what happened in the Mediterranean. since then, the United Kingdom and the United States have increased their naval presence in the Middle East.

In this way, it was expected thatSome signs from Iran regarding the possible release of "Stena Impero" after the departure of "Grace 1 / Adrian Darya 1" from Gibraltar. Although Tehran has indicated that the journey of its tanker was not yet complete and that future negotiations they will depend on finally being able to unload the oil in a port.