Gibraltar: An Iranian supertanker hauling USD 130 million worth of light crude oil that the US suspects to be tied to a sanctioned organisation has lifted its anchor and begun moving away from Gibraltar, marine traffic monitoring data showed late Sunday.
The trail left by GPS data on Marinetraffic.com, a vessel-tracking service, showed the Iran-flagged Adrian Darya 1, previously known as Grace 1, moving shortly before midnight. The tanker slowly steered southeast toward a narrow stretch of international waters separating Morocco and the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula.
The vessel had been detained for a month in the British overseas territory for allegedly attempting to breach European Union sanctions on Syria. Gibraltar authorities rejected an eleventh-hour attempt by the United States’ to reseize the oil tanker, arguing that EU regulations are less strict than US sanctions on Iran.
