“There is no official request from the Iranian tanker for mooring,” Greek Shipping Minister Giannis Plakiotakis said on Tuesday implying that Athens will not officially express its position on the issue, not before tanker Adrian Darya 1 declares its intentions.
The ministires of Merchant Shipping and Foreign Affairs are monitoring the vessel sailing at low speed and there is still no formal announcement that it will arrive at Kalamata, Plakiotakis added.
At the same time, Washington warned Greece even with sanctions should it allow the tanker to moor in the port of Kalamata or any other in the country.
“We have made it clear that anyone who touches it, whoever supports it, whoever allows it to dock is at risk of being sanctioned by the United States,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters.
He stressed that “we have conveyed our strong position on this matter to the Greek government and to all ports in the Mediterranean that need to be warned not to facilitate this tanker.
“It is important for companies and seafarers to know that any efforts to assist this tanker may be seen as providing material support to a US-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, which may have criminal consequences,” Pompeo added.
Apparently following the US warning, Athens said on Wednesday morning that Greece will not facilitate an Iranian tanker sailing in the Mediterranean to deliver oil to Syria.
“We want to send a message that we are not willing to facilitate the course of this ship to Syria,” deputy foreign minister Miltiadis Varvitsiotis told private ANT1 TV.
The Iranian tanker Grace 1 which was renamed to Andrian Darya 1 is at the center of an angry confrontation between Iran and the US.
The tanker is carrying about 2 million barrels of oil.
After it was freed from UK detention off Gibraltar, it started sailing in the direction of Greece on Monday, August 19.
Washington called the release unfortunate and warned Greece and Mediterranean ports against helping the vessel.
Tehran said any US move to seize the vessel again would have “heavy consequences”. While Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif appeared to downplay the possibility of military conflict with Washington in an interview on US television, he also indicated on a visit to Finland that Washington was seeking “more escalation”.
The Grace 1, renamed the Adrian Darya 1, left anchorage off Gibraltar about 11 pm on Sunday. Refinitiv ship tracking data showed on Monday that the vessel was heading to Kalamata in Greece and was scheduled to arrive next Sunday, August 25 at midnight.
The seizure of the tanker by British Royal Marines near Gibraltar in 4 July on suspicion of carrying oil to Syria in violation of European Union sanctions led to a weeks-long confrontation between Tehran and the West. It also heightened tensions on international oil shipping routes through the Gulf.
Gibraltar, a British overseas territory, lifted the detention order on Thursday. But the next day, a federal court in Washington issued a warrant for the seizure of the tanker, the oil it carries and nearly $1 million.
Gibraltar said on Sunday it could not comply with that request because it was bound by EU law. Washington wanted to detain the tanker on the grounds that it had links to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which it has designated a terrorist organization. (reuters, euractiv, efsyn)
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