Iran’s Grace 1 oil tanker, now renamed the Adrian Darya 1, left
Gibraltar on Sunday after an agreement was reached to end its month and a
half detention on the promise they wouldn’t deliver any oil to Syria.
The EU doesn’t allow Syria to buy oil.
That part seems sorted, and reports now are that the tanker is en route to Greece,
where it will sell its oil instead. The EU won’t object to selling oil
to Greece, an EU member nation, and as part of the P5+1 nuclear deal
allows EU companies to buy from Iran at their own discretion.
The US is still angry, of course. The US doesn’t allow Syria to buy oil,
nor Iran to sell oil, and also has attempted to have the tanker and its
oil seized under US civil forfeiture, something Gibraltar rejected. US
courts have issued a warrant allowing the US Marshals to try to capture
the tanker.
Iranian officials have downplayed the risk of the US actually trying to
seize their ship in the Mediterranean, and Iran’s Navy has said they
will provide a military escort to the extent they think it might be
necessary.
Either way, the US State Department says they’ve contacted Greece
and warned them that they have a “strong position” on not buying
anything from Iran without US permission, and that the US never said
Greece could buy that oil.
Iran Oil Tanker Headed to Greece, Officials Downplay Risk of US Seizure
State Dept warns Greece of US position on buying Iranian oil
Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.
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