Iranian tanker to return after failed US attempt to steal oil cargo

Iran’s Embassy in Greece says an Iranian oil tanker is to head back to the country soon, after a failed attempt by the United States to steal its cargo in line with Washington’s sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

“The operation involving transfer of Iran’s stolen oil [back] to the Lana vessel is underway in Greece’s waters, and the vessel will soon head [back] to the country (Iran) with its complete cargo of oil,” the diplomatic mission said in a tweet on Friday.

The Greek authorities confiscated the vessel back in April, handing over its cargo of crude to an American tanker.

The move took place as means of Athens’ abiding by the sanctions that Washington returned against Tehran in 2018 after leaving a historic deal between the Islamic Republic and world countries.

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Reacting to the development, the Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned the Greek chargé d'affaires in Tehran in May and conveyed the Islamic Republic’s “strong protest” over the matter to the diplomat.

Later, the chargé d'affaires of Switzerland, which represents the US’s interests in the Islamic Republic, was also summoned by the Foreign Ministry and notified about Tehran’s protest at Washington’s violation of free trade laws.

Last month, however, the Supreme Civil and Criminal Court of Greece upheld a verdict issued earlier by a court of appeal in favor of the return of the oil cargo to the Iranian vessel. Celebrating the development at the time, the Iranian Embassy called it “another fiasco for pirates!”

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