Iranian Oil Tanker Held for Six Weeks Now Under US Sanctions and Stranded at Sea
(Worthy News) – An Iranian oil tanker detained by the British in July and since released has been blacklisted by the US Treasury Department.
Formerly known as the Grace 1, the Adrian Darya 1 was released by Gibraltar authorities on August 14 after its six week-long detainment for shipping crude oil to Syria against European Union sanctions, but has since been wandering aimlessly in the Mediterranean with no apparent port to receive it, according to the TankerTrackers website that monitors maritime traffic.
“Anyone providing support to the Adrian Darya 1 risks being sanctioned. The path to relief is to change course and not allow the IRGC-QF to profit from illicit oil sales,” said Sigal Mandelker of the Treasury Department in a statement, using the acronym for the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ Quds Force that carries out Iranian operations abroad.
According to a Treasury Department assessment, the oil on board the Adrian Darya 1 was bound not for the Assad government as originally thought, but the Quds Force in Syria, which draws its name from the Arabic word for Jerusalem.
Israel bombed the Quds Force last Saturday for transporting Iranian drones to a base in Aqraba, Syria, which the IDF said were for an attack against the Jewish state.