Tehran is furious that Britain captured an oil tanker belonging to Iran and has demanded that the tanker detained in Gibraltar be released immediately. Tehran feels that the act is in bidding of the United States.
The detention of the vessel comes at a sensitive time for Iran-EU and Iran-US relations with regards to the nuclear deal from which US exited last year. The US recently imposed trade sanctions on Iran . Iran has said that they will not dial down stockpiling uranium to weapons level capacity unless Europe persuaded US to lift the sanctions.
A senior foreign ministry official “called for the immediate release of the oil tanker, given that it has been seized at the request of the US, based on the information currently available," in a meeting with British ambassador Rob Macaire, who had been summoned to hear a formal protest, read a statement released by the ministry.
US national-security adviser John Bolton in the meantime tweeted "Excellent news: UK has detained the supertanker Grace 1 laden with Iranian oil bound for Syria in violation of EU sanctions."
The Grace 1 tanker was impounded at the southern tip of Spain after sailing around Africa . Europe had banned oil shipments to Syria since 2011, but had never seized a tanker at sea. "We have reason to believe that the Grace 1 was carrying its shipment of crude oil to the Banyas refinery in Syria," Gibraltar's Chief Minister Fabian Picardo said in a statement.
The tanker's detention comes just days after Iran announced it would exceed the uranium enrichment limit set up as part of the 2015 deal to avoid it building up to the level required for a nuclear warhead.
According to specialised shipping trade publication Lloyd's List, which analyses vessel-tracking data, the 1997-built ship is laden with Iranian oil.
It reported that the ship loaded oil off Iran in April and sailed around the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa.
