The US jutice department has issued a warrant to seize a detained Iranian oil tanker, a day after a judge in Gibraltar ordered it to be released.
The Grace 1 supertanker, which is carrying 2.1m barrels of oil, was detained on 4 July .A last-minute legal attempt by the US to keep the tanker detained was rejected by Gibraltar on Thursday. Iran previously called the detention of Grace 1 an “illegal interception”.
Two weeks after Grace 1 was detained, on 19 July, Iran seized the British flagged tanker Stena Impero in the Strait of Hormuz.
The warrant, issued by a US federal court in Washington on Friday, is addressed to “the United States Marshal’s Service and/or any other duly authorized law enforcement officer”.