Two Greek-flagged oil tankers that had been held since May in an Iranian port have been released, ending a long-running dispute that sparked a diplomatic row between Iran and Greece over the seizure of the Russian tanker ‘Lana’.
«Today is a very pleasant day for our sailors, but also for Greece in general, as an unpleasant and particularly complex case came to an end, following the systematic efforts of the Greek government,» Minister of Maritime Transport and Island Policy Yannis Plakiotakis said in a statement.
Specifically, the ship ‘Delta Poseidon’ and the ‘Prudent Warrior’ were detained last May 27 in the Iranian port of the city of Bandar Abbas, in the province of Hormozgan, and have been released after reaching an agreement with the Iranian authorities, as reported by the Greek daily ‘Ta Nea’.
The dispute began when Greek authorities seized the Iranian-flagged tanker ‘Lana’ on April 14 after it took refuge from a heavy storm in a bay off the port of Karistos, on the island of Evia.
The tanker, formerly named ‘Pegasus’ and later renamed ‘Lana’, was intercepted on its way to a terminal in Turkey for allegedly violating sanctions imposed by the European Union against Russia for the invasion of Ukraine. It was then transferred to the port of Karistos together with the crew, Russian nationals.
It was later determined that the tanker’s cargo was some 115,000 tons of Iranian oil, which led the United States to demand the transfer of the crude oil because of the sanctions imposed against Tehran, a request that was finally accepted by the Greek authorities.
This decision sparked criticism from Tehran, which summoned the Greek chargé d’affaires in Iran to convey its protest at what they considered to be «unacceptable». Moreover, the Iranian Foreign Ministry criticized Greece for having «surrendered to U.S. pressure».
