COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — The head of the Swedish shipping firm that owns the British-flagged oil tanker held by Iran since July says Stena Impero is still in Iranian waters.
Erik Hanell, CEO of Stena Bulk, told The AP Tuesday that “we know nothing as to why she is still there.”
On Monday, an Iranian government spokesman said legal proceedings had concluded and the vessel, which has been kept in the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas since July 19, was free to move.
Iran seized the tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20% of the world’s oil passes.
The seizure came after authorities in Gibraltar seized an Iranian tanker carrying $130 million in crude oil on suspicion of it breaking European Union sanctions on Syria.