Iran Crisis: Gibraltar Opposes the United States

The United States failed to stop the oil-laden Iranian supertanker "Grace 1" on departure from Gibraltar.

The Gibraltar authorities referred to the EU law. The United States had justified the seizure request by referring to its sanctions against Iran. These sanctions are not, according to the justification of the British territorial authorities of overseas, either in the United Kingdom or in the rest of the European Union. "The sanctions regime of the EU against Iran is fundamentally different from that of the United States," the Government of Gibraltar said.

The tanker can now leave the waters of Gibraltar. Currently, the ship is still anchored to the east of the British overseas territory. A new crew should now hire the tanker, which now operates under the Iranian flag and has since been renamed "Adrian Darya 1". Hossein Khanzadi, commander of the Iranian Navy, offered to take the tanker with a military escort.

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The Gibraltar and British Royal Navy authorities had declared the Panamanian tanker in early July on suspicion of suspected illegal oil supplies to Syria. Two weeks later, the Tehran regime arrested the British Stena Impero tanker in the Strait of Hormuz because it violated the law of the sea. The incidents aggravated the conflict and tensions in Iran in the Persian Gulf.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court of the British Overseas Territory on the southern coast of Spain released the super-tank – after Iran had promised not to bring the cargo to Syria and therefore to comply with the sanctions of the EU against the Damascus regime.

As a result, on Friday, a federal court in the US capital Washington ordered the seizure of "Grace 1" and the oil on board and nearly a million dollars of banking activities from a mailbox company, which should have links to the ship. The Justice Department justified it in a statement with alleged US sanctions violations, anti-money laundering laws and terrorism statutes. The prosecution claimed that the ship was part of a plan by Iranian revolutionary guards to support the Syrian regime.