US blacklists Iranian tanker in Mediterranean
 

WASHINGTON: The United States has blacklisted the Iranian tanker Adrian Darya, saying it had “reliable information” it was transporting oil to Syria in defiance of wide-ranging sanctions on the regime of Bashar al-Assad.Previously known as Grace 1, the vessel was seized in July by British Royal Marines and held in Gibraltar for six weeks on suspicion it was delivering oil for Tehran’s ally Damascus. The British territory released the ship — despite US protests — after it said it had received written assurances from Iran that the vessel would not head for countries under European Union sanctions.Tehran later denied it had made any promises about the ship’s destination. The US Department of Treasury said the vessel was “blocked property” under an anti-terrorist order, and “anyone providing support to the Adrian Darya 1 risks being sanctioned”.The ship’s captain, Akhilesh Kumar, was also blacklisted under the order. Since its release from Gibraltar, the Adrian Darya has been bouncing around the Mediterranean, its every move followed with intense speculation. The vessel was in waters north of Cyprus as of 0745 GMT, according to the MarineTraffic tracking website.While Iran has denied selling the oil to Damascus, experts said the likely scenario was for a ship-to-ship transfer, with a Syrian port as the final destination. Iran said on Monday it had “sold the oil” aboard the tanker and that the owner will decide the destination.It did not identify the buyer or say whether the oil had been sold before or after the tanker’s detention in the Strait of Gibraltar. It also said it could not name the actual destination due to “economic terrorism” by the United States and its sanctions on Iran’s oil sales. According to maritime traffic monitoring websites, the huge tanker has changed direction multiple times, following no apparent logic. It earlier described it as “aimlessly moseying around the Med.”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/com/cwEr/~4/a8_ukwcsoqk

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