{"id":193259,"date":"2019-08-15T15:59:38","date_gmt":"2019-08-15T15:59:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=193259"},"modified":"2019-08-17T05:45:29","modified_gmt":"2019-08-17T05:45:29","slug":"gibraltar-releases-iranian-tanker-despite-last-minute-us-effort-to-seize-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=193259","title":{"rendered":"Gibraltar releases Iranian tanker despite last-minute US effort to seize it"},"content":{"rendered":"

Raf Sanchez — The Daily Telegraph Aug 15, 2019<\/h1>\n
\"\"<\/a>

The Grace 1 off the coast of Gibraltar. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n

Gibraltar has released an Iranian oil tanker detained last month despite a last-minute US bid to have the ship seized.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The US made an emergency appeal to Gibraltar to keep the ship in custody but authorities announced on Thursday afternoon that they were releasing it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The release of the Grace 1 after more than a month will raise hopes that Iran may now release the Stena Impero, a British-flagged tanker seized in relation by Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guard.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It was not immediately clear when the Grace 1 would actually set sail from Gibraltar or if the US would take further action to prevent its departure.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The ship was seized on July 4 on the grounds that it was violating EU sanctions on Syria by carrying 2.1 million barrels of crude oil to the Syrian coast, Gibraltarian authorities said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Fabian Picardo, chief minister of Gibraltar, said he had received written assurances from Iran that the ship would not violate EU sanctions.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn light of the assurances we have received, there are no longer any reasonable grounds for the continued legal detention of the Grace 1 in order to ensure compliance with the EU Sanctions Regulation,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWith effect from today I have therefore revoked the Specification of the Vessel.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He said the US request for the detention of the vessel would be considered separately.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hamid Baeidinejad, Iran\u2019s ambassador to the UK, said the US had \u201cdesperately\u201d tried to stop the ship\u2019s release but faced \u201ca miserable defeat\u201d. He said the ship would set sail from Gibraltar \u201csoon\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Tehran has repeatedly accused Gibraltar and the UK of seizing the ship as part of Donald Trump\u2019s \u201cmaximum pressure\u201d campaign against the Iranian economy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A Foreign Office spokesman said earlier in the week: \u201cThe investigations being conducted around the Grace 1 are a matter for the Government of Gibraltar. As this is an ongoing investigation we are unable to comment further.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Indian captain of the Grace 1 and three of his officers have been released from arrest in Gibraltar, the government said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The captain previously accused Britain of using unnecessary \u201cbrute force\u201d when Royal Marines took the ship.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He said the marines pointed guns at his unarmed crew and forced them to kneel on the deck.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey just pointed the gun and they started shouting look forward, look forward,\u201d he told the BBC. \u201cI was totally shocked I didn\u2019t know what to feel because they didn\u2019t give me a chance to talk.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

U.S. legal bid to seize control of the Iranian tanker from Gibraltar fails <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[58,51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-193259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Current_Affairs","category-Iran"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=193259"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":193261,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193259\/revisions\/193261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=193259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=193259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=193259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}