The U.S. has a made a last-minute move to seize an Iranian supertanker that was captured in Gibraltar last month by authorities who suspect the vessel was trying to provide crude oil to Bashar Assad’s Syrian regime in violation of European Union sanctions.
Gibraltar’s government announced Thursday that its Supreme Court adjourned a scheduled decision on whether to release the Grace 1 ship until later in the day after it received notice that the U.S. Department of Justice is seeking to extend its detention.
The Iranian vessel has been held in the British territory since July 4 and officials from the Islamic Republic have been demanding its release, signaling that if Gibraltar parts with the ship, they may free the U.K.-flagged Stena Impero – an oil tanker captured in the Strait of Hormuz two weeks later.
“The U.S. Department of Justice has applied to seize the Grace 1 on a number of allegations which are now being considered,” the Gibraltar government said in a statement, adding that the matter would be reviewed by the court at 4 p.m. local time (10 a.m. ET).
The Gibraltar government has said it was seeking to “de-escalate” the situation over the Grace 1, the Associated Press reports.
Signaling preparations for the expected release of the ship Thursday before the U.S. intervened, the captain, an Indian national, and three officers of the Grace 1 had been released from detention, a Gibraltar government spokesman said.
The whereabouts of the released crew, none of whom are Iranian, were not immediately known. The crew of the Grace 1 includes sailors from India, Pakistan and Ukraine, according to Iranian state television.
Iran has been vocal ever since the capture of the ship. In mid-July, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani warned Britain that it would face “repercussions” over the “mean and wrong” seizure of it.
Then on July 19, Iran captured the Stena Impero — which has 23 crew members of Indian, Russian, Latvian and Filipino nationalities aboard — in an apparent act of retaliation. The ship “was approached by unidentified small crafts and a helicopter during transit of the Strait of Hormuz while the vessel was in international waters,” Stena Bulk, the shipping company that owns the vessel, said in a statement.
Five days after the seizure of the Stena Impero, Rouhani said his country might be willing to free the ship if Gibraltar releases the Grace 1.
“We do not seek the continuation of tension with some European countries,” Rouhani said in comments carried on his website. “Should they be committed to international frameworks and give up their wrong actions, including what they did in Gibraltar, they will receive a proportional response from Iran.”
As of today, the Stena Impero remains docked in the waters outside of the Iranian coastal city of Bandar Abbas.
Britain’s Foreign Office said in a statement Thursday that the “investigations conducted around the Grace 1 are a matter for the government of Gibraltar” and that it could not comment further as the investigation was ongoing.
