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Gibraltar on Sunday rejected a US demand to seize an Iranian oil tanker at the centre of a diplomatic dispute as it prepared to leave the British overseas territory after weeks of detention. Gibraltar’s government said it could not seek a court order to detain the supertanker because US sanctions against Iran were not applicable in the European Union. “The EU sanctions regime against Iran — which is applicable in Gibraltar — is much narrower than that applicable in the US,” the Gibraltar authorities said in a statement. Iran’s ambassador to London said in a tweet that “the vessel should set sail this evening,” with fresh crew arriving. A Gibraltar judge ordered the Grace 1 tanker released on Thursday, weeks after authorities seized the vessel on suspicion of transporting oil to Syria in breach of European sanctions. On Friday, the US Justice Department filed a request to detain the ship alleging it was involved in supporting illicit shipments to Syria by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, listed as a terrorist group by Washington.
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19/08/2019
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