Iran's ambassador to the UK Hamid Baeidinejad has confirmed reports that the Iranian oil tanker 'Grace 1,' recently released by Gibraltar, has been moving towards international waters.
"We hereby confirm that our tanker has left Gibraltar for international waters after 45 days," Baeidinejad wrote on Twitter.
The shipping data showed that the tanker, renamed 'Adrian Darya 1,' set sail from the Gibraltar port just before midnight local time on Sunday, the same day the British overseas territory rejected Washington’s last-minute request to detain the vessel further for a violation of US sanctions. Washington issued a warrant for the tanker’s arrest last week, accusing it of illegally using a US bank to finance the transfer of oil to support the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
The then-Panama-flagged tanker was seized by the UK Navy outside Gibraltar in early July for violating the EU's own sanctions on Iran. The tanker, with some 2.1 million barrels of crude on board, was accused of transporting the cargo to Syria, a claim that Tehran subsequently denied.
