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Adrian Darya spotted off Syria as Iranian tanker news flows
iran
SATELLITE imagery has shown that Iranian vessel the Adrian darya 1 is moored near the Syrian port of Tartus.
Russian news agency Tass reported on Sep- tember 7 that the ship was moored around 4km from the coast, with AP later clarifying that the images were provided to the agency by the US firm Maxar Technologies. The ship’s location was later confirmed by Tanker Trackers.
Earlier, Middle East Eye reported that the tanker had unloaded in the Syrian port; however, competing claims suggested that the vessel, for- merly the Grace 1, was merely sitting in Syrian waters to avoid capture by US forces looking to seize the ship.
Assistant American President for National Security John Bolton in turn emphasised that the US will not mitigate sanctions against Iran until Tehran ceases to “lie and spread terror”.
“Anyone who said the Adrian darya-1 wasn’t headed to #Syria is in denial,” he said on his Twit- ter account on September 7.
There is, however, no confirmation that the ship is unloading its cargo of 2.1mn barrels of Iranian crude oil.
Neither Iran nor Syria have commented on the current situation.
In a statement, the UK’s Foreign Office called the reports “deeply troubling” as it aligns more closely with the US, with the British-flagged Swedish-owned Stena Impero remaining out- side the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas.
A spokesperson said that if Iran had broken its assurances, it would be “a violation of inter- national norms and a morally bankrupt course of action”.
Crew released
On September, Russia’s Ria Novosti reported that Iran had freed seven crew members of the Stena Impero, adding that those freed included Russian crewmembers along with citizens of other countries.
“Seven people have been released; this was done at the request of the shipowner, by a deci- sion of the captain. Among the seven released, there is one citizen of Russia, an electrician,” according to the press attaché of the Russian Embassy in Tehran, Andrei Ganenko.
he noted that the minimum number of crew required for the tanker to venture back out to sea remained onboard. The vessel was seized in July.
The announcement of the crewmembers’ release follows efforts by the crew’s embassies not to have them held hostage as tensions between the UK and Iran continue to ramp up.
smugglers held
Meanwhile, Iran seized another commercial ship this week on suspicion of smuggling.
This is the third vessel to be arrested in the last three months over alleged maritime violations.
The latest was reported to be carrying around 284,000 litres of smuggled diesel and the ISNA news agency said the ship’s 12 Filipino crew members had been detained.
One Panama-flagged tanker and one reported to belong to Iraq had been seized for smuggling Iranian fuel, with Panamanian authorities con- firming that the former was carrying out illicit activities and withdrawing its registration. Bagh- dad denied any link to the other vessel.™
Week 36 10•September•2019 w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m P7