After several days of claims by Iran that a British-flagged oil tanker seized in mid-July was free to leave, tracking data show that the Stena Impero left Iranian waters Friday morning on its way to the United Arab Emirates. The vessel was seized by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in the Strait of Hormuz on July 19 for unstated “maritime violations,” yet it was clear that the move had come in retaliation over Gibraltar’s impounding of an Iranian supertanker two weeks previously for probable violations of European Union sanctions against Syria, at the time the vessel’s probable destination. That tanker was freed in August. Under a shroud of mystery on the high seas that included the vessel’s renaming and an announcement by Tehran that its cargo had been sold to an unnamed third party, it apparently offloaded its crude earlier this month while anchored off the Syrian coast. The seizure of the Stena Impero and its 23 crewmembers played a central role in the current tensions in the Gulf, exacerbated most recently by September 14 aerial attacks against Saudi refineries that the West is blaming on Iran.
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