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WORLD NEWS Friday 5 July 2019

Gibraltar detains Syria-bound supertanker with Iranian oil

By ARITZ PARRA saying that Washington
JON GAMBRELL cannot be trusted.
Associated Press On Thursday, the official
MADRID (AP) — Authorities IRNA news agency quoted
in Gibraltar said they inter- Information Minister Mah-
cepted Thursday an Ira- moud Alavi as saying “if the
nian supertanker believed supreme leader permits,
to be breaching European negotiations between Iran
Union sanctions by carry- and the United States will
ing a shipment of Tehran’s be held.” He added, how-
crude oil to war-ravaged ever, that Tehran would not
Syria. negotiate under pressure.
A senior Spanish official said There was no immediate
the operation was request- reaction to the tanker’s de-
ed by the United States. tention from Syria, which
Iran’s state-run IRNA news has suffered severe fuel
agency described the in- shortages as a result of the
cident as “an illegal seizure civil war and Western sanc-
of an Iranian oil tanker.” tions that have crippled the
Gibraltar port and law en- country’s oil industry, once
forcement agencies, as- the source of 20 percent of
sisted by Britain’s Royal Ma- Grace 1 super tanker is anchored near a Royal Marine patrol vessel in the British territory of government revenues.
rines, boarded the Grace 1 Gibraltar, Thursday, July 4, 2019. Iran, which has provided vi-
early Thursday, authorities Associated Press tal military support to Assad,
on the British overseas terri- Spain argues that it is not, of Hormuz have been tar- Last month Iran shot down extended a $3 billion credit
tory at the tip of Spain said and the tanker operation geted in mysterious at- a U.S. surveillance drone, line for oil supplies begin-
in a statement. risks offending the Spanish. tacks as Iranian-backed further stoking those fears. ning in 2013 but the Iranian
It added that the vessel “We’re looking into how rebels in Yemen launch Iran’s intelligence minis- aid dwindled as Washing-
was believed to be head- this (operation) affects our bomb-laden drones into ter said Thursday that any ton restored tough sanc-
ed to the Baniyas Refinery sovereignty,” said Borrell, Saudi Arabia. The U.S. has negotiations with the U.S. tions. In November, the U.S.
in Syria, a government- who was nominated earlier rushed thousands of ad- would have to be ap- Treasury Department add-
owned facility under the this week to become the ditional troops, an aircraft proved by Supreme Lead- ed a network of Russian
control of Syrian President EU’s foreign policy chief. carrier, B-52 bombers and er Ayatollah Ali Khame- and Iranian companies to
Bashar Assad and subject The Gibraltar authorities F-22 fighters to the region, nei and would require the its blacklist for shipping oil
to the EU’s Syrian Sanctions didn’t confirm the origin of raising fears of a miscal- lifting of U.S. sanctions. to Syria and warned of “sig-
Regime. the ship’s cargo but Lloyd’s culation sparking a wider Khamenei has until now nificant risks” for those vio-
The EU and others have im- List, a publication special- conflict. ruled out talks with the U.S., lating the sanctions.q
posed sanctions on Assad’s izing in maritime affairs, re-
government over its contin- ported this week that the
ued crackdown against ci- Panama-flagged large
vilians. They currently target carrier was laden with Ira-
270 people and 70 entities. nian oil.
Spain’s caretaker foreign The vessel likely carried just
minister Josep Borrell said over 2 million barrels of Ira-
the tanker was stopped nian crude oil, the data
by British authorities after firm Refinitv said. Tracking
a request from the Unit- data showed that the tank-
ed States. Iran later sum- er made a slow trip around
moned the British ambas- the southern tip of Africa
sador in Tehran to answer before reaching the Medi-
questions about the opera- terranean, it said.
tion. Iranian Foreign Ministry The tanker’s detention
spokesman Abbas Mousavi comes at a particularly
said in a tweet that Rob sensitive time as tensions
Macaire was summoned between the U.S. and Iran
over the “illegal intercep- grow over the unraveling of
tion” of the ship. a 2015 nuclear deal, which
Mousavi later called the President Donald Trump
ship’s seizure “odd and de- withdrew from last year.
structive.” ‘’It can cause Trump has also slapped
an increase in tensions in sanctions onto Iran and re-
the region,” he said in a cently approved the pas-
live telephone interview sage of a carrier group,
on state television Thurs- bombers and fighter jets to
day night. In Madrid, Borrell the Persian Gulf.
told reporters that Spain is In recent days, Iran has
assessing the implications broken through the limit the
of the operation because deal put on its stockpile of
the detention took place in low-enriched uranium and
waters it considers its own. plans on Sunday to boost
Britain insists Gibraltar is part its enrichment. Meanwhile,
of the United Kingdom but oil tankers near the Strait