- Title: British tanker arrives in Dubai after 10-week detention in Iran
- Date: 28th September 2019
- Summary: DUBAI, UAE (SEPTEMBER 28, 2019) (REUTERS) VIEW OF TANKER STENA IMPERO IN PORT RASHID
- Embargoed: 12th October 2019 11:41
- Keywords: repatriation Refinitiv Dubai Gulf tension Stena Bulk tanker crew Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Bandar Abbas Stena Impero port
- Location: INTERNET / AT SEA, OFF COAST OF BANDAR ABBAS, IRAN / BANDAR ABBAS, IRAN /DUBAI, UAE
- City: INTERNET / AT SEA, OFF COAST OF BANDAR ABBAS, IRAN / BANDAR ABBAS, IRAN /DUBAI, UAE
- Country: Various
- Topics: Diplomacy/Foreign Policy,Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA001AYKLEFB
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:The British-flagged Stena Impero tanker was anchored in Dubai's Port Rashid on Saturday (September 28) after sailing out of Iranian waters.
The Stena Impero left Iran's Bandar Abbas port on Friday (September 27) morning bound for Dubai, where the crew will be repatriated, the vessel's Swedish operator Stena Bulk said, after being detained for 10 weeks.
The vessel was detained in July during a row with Britain that has stoked tensions in the Gulf.
The ship was seized by Iran's Revolutionary Guards in the Strait of Hormuz, a major oil shipping route, for alleged marine violations two weeks after Britain detained an Iranian tanker off the territory of Gibraltar. The Iranian ship was released in August.
It reached international waters," Stena Bulk Chief Executive Erik Hanell told Reuters in a text message after the Stena Impero began sailing, adding that the ship's master "reported that all crew members are safe and in high spirits following release."
He said the crew would receive medical checks and be de-briefing in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, on the opposite side of the Gulf, before travelling home to their families. Seven of the 23 crew were freed earlier this month.
The seizure of the ship ratcheted up tension after attacks in May and June on other merchant vessels in Gulf waters, which the United States blamed on Iran, a charge Tehran denied.
The Ports and Maritime Organization of Iran in the country's southern Hormozgan Province said the ship started to move out from Bandar Abbas at 9 a.m. Iran time (0530 GMT).
But it said the judicial file on the vessel remained open and the process of looking into "violations" by the ship was ongoing.
(Production: Kristian Brunse, Basmah Fahim, Paul Warren) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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