Iran tanker departs after Gibraltar rejects US demand

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Gibraltar: The Iranian oil tanker at the centre of a diplomatic dispute has departed from Gibraltar after the British overseas territory rejected a US demand to seize the vessel.
According to the monitoring website Marine Traffic, the supertanker – which had been detained since July 4 off the coast of Gibraltar – lifted anchor Sunday evening and starting sailing south.
Authorities in Gibraltar have not confirmed its departure.
Gibraltar had earlier refused a US request to seize Grace 1, the Iranian tanker caught in a stand-off between Tehran and the West, citing that it was bound by EU law. It's Supreme Court ordered the tanker released last Thursday, with Iranian officials saying a new crew had arrived to pilot the vessel – now renamed Adrian Darya – and its 2.1 million barrels of oil.
As of early Monday, the vessel had turned east, with Marine Traffic reporting its destination as Kalamata in Greece. The Iranian tanker was seen flying the red, green and white flag of Iran and bearing the new name of 'Adrian Darya-1' painted in white on its hull. Its previous name, 'Grace 1', had been painted over.
The tanker was seized by British Royal Marines in Gibraltar in July on suspicion that it was carrying oil to Syria, a close ally of Iran, in violation of European Union sanctions. The 28-member crew of the vessel include majority Indians of whom 3 are Keralites.
After a hearing in Gibraltar on Thursday, the local Supreme Court of the region ruled that the tanker should be released after formal written assurances from Iran that the ship would not discharge its cargo in Syria and therefore not be in breach of EU sanctions.
The United States, having failed to block the vessel's departure, has now threatened a visa ban on the crew of the Iranian supertanker.
State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said the Grace 1 was assisting Iran's Revolutionary Guards, which the US deems a "terrorist organization," meaning crew members "may be ineligible for visas or admission to the United States under the terrorism-related inadmissibility grounds."
The initial impounding of the Grace 1 kicked off a sequence of events that saw Tehran seize a British-flagged oil tanker in the Gulf two weeks later, heightening tension on a vital international oil shipping route.
That tanker, the Stena Impero, is still detained.
Analysts had said the release of the Grace 1 by Gibraltar could see Britain's Stena Impero go free.
The two vessels have since become pawns in a bigger game, feeding into wider hostilities since the United States last year pulled out of an international agreement to curb Iran's nuclear programme, and reimposed economic sanctions.
The US - citing Tehran's threat to American allies - expanded its military presence in the region with a new aircraft carrier task force, missile batteries and strategic bombers.
(With inputs from PTI)