(Adds Iranian official’s comments)
STOCKHOLM, Sept 24 (Reuters) – British-flagged tanker Stena Impero, detained by Iran in July, remains in that country even as Iranian officials have said it was free to leave, Erik Hanell, chief executive of the tanker’s Swedish owner Stena Bulk said on Tuesday.
Iran’s ambassador to Britain, Hamid Baeidinejad, had said in a Twitter post on Monday that the vessel was free to leave after legal hurdles had been cleared.
“The detention order on Stena Impero had been lifted and the vessel is going through the proceedings to leave Bandar Abbas” port, Mohammad Rastad, head of Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization, was quoted as saying on Tuesday by the semi-official news agency ILNA.
“She has moved during her time there to get fresh water, among other things, but is still in Bandar Abbas,” Hanell said in a text message, adding he had no information as to why the ship had not left Iran.
Iran’s seizure of the Stena Impero on July 19 for alleged marine violations, two weeks after Britain detained an Iranian tanker off Gibraltar, ratcheted up tensions in the region following attacks on other merchant vessels which Washington blamed on Tehran. The Iranian vessel was released in August.
Iran has denied responsibility for those attacks, which took place along a vital international oil shipping route.
Relations between the United States, its allies and Iran have become more strained since Washington withdrew last year from a global pact to rein in Tehran’s nuclear programme and imposed sanctions on the country that were aimed at shutting down Iranian oil exports.
Asked about accusations that Iran had taken the British tanker hostage, Rastad said: “There is no hostage-taking. According to the law, the ship was detained because of violations, and… the rules are to first impose a detention order and then investigate the violations and issue a ruling,” ILNA reported.
An Iranian government spokesman said on Monday that all legal steps had been taken for the release of the tanker, Iranian media reported.
“The legal work and administrative procedures for the release of the English tanker have been completed but I have no information on the time of the release,” said spokesman Ali Rabiei, according to semi-official news agency ILNA. (Reporting by Johan Ahlander, editing by Ed Osmond and Bernadette Baum)