An Iranian ship held by Gibraltar since July on suspicion of transporting oil to Syria has left port.
Marine tracking shows the tanker moving east into the Mediterranean and lists Kalamata in Greece as the destination.
Gibraltar earlier rejected a request by the US to again seize the ship, which has changed its name from Grace 1 to Adrian Darya-1.
Live footage from Gibraltar and the vessel‘s coordinates at Marine Traffic website show that the huge tanker is leaving the Gibraltar waters at the pace of 2.5 knots, but the destination is not yet clear.
But Gibraltar lifted the detention order last Thursday after Chief Minister Fabian Picardo said he had secured written assurances from Tehran that the cargo would not go to Syria.
Those assurances, in the form of diplomatic Notes Verbale from the Iranian government, were published last Thursday by Gibraltar as part of the legal notice lifting the detention order.
Die Regierung in Gibraltar teilte zudem mit, dass das Schiff abfahren dürfe. Es werde erwartet, dass der iranische Tanker in Kürze mit einer neuen Crew die Region verlässt.
Der Tanker wurde inzwischen in „Adrian Darya 1“ umbenannt. Das Schiff soll nun unter iranischer Flagge weiterfahren. Zuvor war es unter der Flagge Panamas gefahren.
The Iranian supertanker Grace 1 is unlikely to sail from Gibraltar before Sunday, the Chronicle understands, with six crewmen including a new captain scheduled to arrive this weekend.
Logistical arrangements are currently being put in place by the vessel‘s owners after it was released on Thursday following six weeks detained under Gibraltar‘s sanctions legislation.
The Gibraltar Chronicle newspaper reported that the vessel was unlikely to sail before Sunday, citing an unnamed source who added that it was waiting for six new crew members including a captain to arrive that day.
A lawyer for the Grace 1‘s current captain also told the newspaper that his client had asked to be replaced.
Das Oberste Gericht des britischen Überseegebiets Gibraltar hat das Auslaufen des seit Anfang Juli dort festgesetzten iranischen Öltankers „Grace 1“ erlaubt. Ein Antrag der US-Regierung, das Schiff dauerhaft zu beschlagnahmen, wurde damit heute verworfen.
A court in Gibraltar will on Thursday decide whether to extend the detention of the ship which was seized on June 4.
Authorities in Gibraltar were given permission by Gibraltar’s Supreme Court to detain the vessel until mid-August, with another hearing on the matter set for Thursday morning. The current detention order on the vessel expires on Saturday night.
(07.07.2019)
The Syrian government has two big oil-producing friends, Iran and Russia. With the routes from the first apparently closed, it may have to turn to the second. This presents a new host of potential risks. Impounding an Iranian ship in the Strait of Gibraltar is one thing. Stopping a Russian ship in the Aegean Sea is quite another.
London: Militärs verlangen vom demnächst sein Amt antretenden neuen Premierminister eine „schnelle Antwort“ gegen den Iran.
After the dramatic hijacking of the Stena Impero oil tanker carrying 23 crew by Iranian Special Forces, top brass were last night devising a list of options for a rapid military response.
It is understood they will seek the green light to deploy Royal Marines on British vessels travelling through the Strait of Hormuz to act as a deterrent to further aggression.
(20.07.2019)
Gibraltar said the Iranian vessel, seized by marines in a daring landing in darkness off the coast of the British territory on July 4, was suspected of smuggling oil to Syria in breach of European Union sanctions.
“As part of our long standing presence in the Gulf, HMS Duncan is deploying to the region to ensure we maintain a continuous maritime security presence while HMS Montrose comes off task for pre-planned maintenance and crew change over,” the government said.
Die USA verzichteten Insidern zufolge indes vorerst auf Sanktionen gegen den iranischen Außenminister Mohammed Dschawad Sarif. Was genau die US-Regierung zu dem Schritt bewogen hat, sagten die beiden mit dem Vorgang vertrauten Personen nicht.
„The Grace 1 was detained last week in Gibraltar when it freely navigated into British Gibraltar territorial waters to a point two miles off the Eastside of Gibraltar, having previously exited the international waters of the Straits of Gibraltar, on a pre-arranged call for provisions and spare parts,“ the Gibraltar Government spokesman said.
The ship was „well inside BGTW“ when it was boarded and remains detained in that area, the spokesman added.
To illustrate that point, the Gibraltar Government issued a screen grab from the Port of Gibraltar‘s vessel traffic monitoring system taken on the night of detention.
(05.07.2019)
Spain, which challenges the British ownership of Gibraltar, has said the seizure was prompted by a US request to Britain and appeared to have taken place in Spanish waters.
(09.07.2019)
Die EU stellt seit 2011 Öllieferungen an Syrien unter Strafe. Das Öl in dem Schiff soll aus dem Iran stammen, was wiederum die US-Sanktionen gegen die Islamische Republik verletzen würde. Am Freitag entschied das oberste Gericht der britischen Exklave Gibraltar, dass der Tanker zwei Wochen festgehalten werden solle.
The Prime Minister is doing the wrong thing by saying the people are tired of Brexit because we‘ll be more than tired of it when we become a puppet at the end of Brussels‘ strings
Desperate Theresa May on Sunday goes over the heads of MPs to appeal directly to the nation to back her Brexit deal.
As things stand, the PM knows she faces defeat when the deal comes before the Commons next month as enemies on all sides gang up on her.
That reassurance came on Saturday in the form of a letter from the British ambassador to the EU, Sir Tim Barrow, laying out the British government’s acceptance that the withdrawal agreement “imposes no obligations regarding the territorial scope” of a future trade deal.
Spanien lenkt in letzter Minute ein und macht den Weg für den EU-Sondergipfel frei.…
European Union leaders hold an exceptional summit in the EU27 format to endorse the Brexit deal in Brussels on Sunday, November 25. The leaders are expected to finalise and formalise the draft Brexit agreement and to discuss the future relationship between the UK and the EU.
Pedro Sánchez will vote on Sunday in favor of the United Kingdom’s Withdrawal Agreement, something he had been saying he would not do due to the text’s position on the British Overseas Territory
Am Sonntag stimmen die Staats- und Regierungschefs der EU-27 über den Austrittsvertrag mit dem Vereinigten Königreich und die Zukunftserklärung ab – derstandard.at/2000092104231/Offenbar-doch-kein-Durchbruch-bei-Brexit-Streit-um-Gibraltar
Vor dem EU-Sondergipfel zum Brexit steht die mühsam ausgehandelte Einigung auf der Kippe: Spanien droht mit einer Absage des Gipfels, falls es keine Einigung in der Gibraltar-Frage gibt.
The Spanish government has reiterated its threat to veto the Withdrawal Agreement if the position of the British Overseas Territory is not clarified
The separate declaration would be a statement by the 27 remaining EU states only and would not be negotiated with Britain, the sources added.
(Video)
And he reiterated Spain’s insistence that negotiations over the future relationship between Gibraltar and the EU should be handled separately to those with the U.K.
“I am very much [more] worried about the unity of the United Kingdom than the unity of the Kingdom of Spain. I think the United Kingdom will split apart before the Kingdom of Spain,” he said, in an apparent reference to movements in both Scotland and Northern Ireland to leave the U.K. over its EU departure.