United States seeks to seize Iranian vessel Grace 1 in Gibraltar - report
"The Iranian Grace 1 oil tanker was seized by Royal Marine commandos in a landing in darkness off the coast of the British overseas territory on July 4.
Gibraltar said the tanker was suspected of selling oil to Syria in breach of European Union sanctions.
Two weeks later, Iran's Revolutionary Guards seized the British-flagged Stena Impero in the Gulf on July 19
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Iran to release British-flagged tanker seized in strait of Hormuz
"Iran has denied the Stena Impero’s impoundment was a tit-for-tat move.
The takeover, which led the UK to advise its ships to temporarily avoid the strait of Hormuz, was part of a wave of sabotage attacks and seizures of ships over the past six months in and around the narrow waterway through which more than a quarter of the world’s oil supply passes.
The US and Gulf states have blamed Iran for the incidents including the alleged use of explosives against four oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman in May, suspicious fires on two tankers in the same area in June and the attempted seizure of the British vessel in July, allegedly by Iranian boats that were driven off by a Royal Navy warship.
A Gibraltar court ordered the release of the Iranian vessel, then called Grace and since renamed Adrian Darya 1, on 18 August after receiving written assurances from Iran that it would not head to countries under EU sanctions.
Tehran denies making any such assurances and the UK says the Adrian Darya 1, which turned off its transponder off the Syrian coast earlier this month, has sold its oil to Assad’s regime. Satellite images of the ship said to have been taken days after it stopped transmitting its location showed it near the Syrian port of Tartus.
Iran’s envoy to London claims the cargo was sold to a private company in a ship-to-ship transfer. "
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So Britain released the Iranian vessel
after receiving written assurances from
the Iranian government that the oil tanker
would not sell its barrels of oil in Syria.
After the release, Iran changed the ship’s
name to Adrian Darya 1 and denied agreement.
Now the ship appears to have off-loaded its
2.1 million barrels of oil to Syria without even
a slap on the wrist.