Released Iranian Tanker Switches Destination to Turkey

August 24: The Iranian tanker ‘Adrian Darya’, formerly known as ‘Grace 1’,which has attracted media attention for being at the centre of a confrontation between Washington and Tehran over the last month, has switched destination and is now heading to Turkey instead of southern Greece. This is according to data from ship tracking data on Saturday.

The ship was released from detention off Gibraltar about five weeks after the ship was seized suspected of breaching EU sanctions by shipping oil to Syria.

The Royal Gibraltar Police had also arrested the Indian Captain and Chief Officer of the Iranian tanker.

Previous data had shown that the vessel, which is fully laden with oil, was heading to the port of Kalamata in Southern Greece.

However, the US, which says the tanker is controlled by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, deemed a terrorist group by Washington, has told countries in the region not to assist it, Reuters reports.

Greece had said it would not offer any facilities to the tanker.

Accordingly, new data from MarineTraffic on Saturday show the vessel will now sail past Greece through the Mediterranean and dock at the southern Turkish port of Mersin on 31st August.

Source: Safety4Sea