The United States on Friday blacklisted the Iranian oil tanker Adrian Darya 1 following repeated warnings over its valuable oil cargo.
Previously known as Grace 1, the ship has been bouncing around the Mediterranean Sea after being held for six weeks by Gibraltar on suspicion its cargo was bound for Syria.
Despite Washington’s efforts to keep it detained, it was released by the British territory and its every move is being followed with intense speculation.
The US Treasury Department on Friday said the vessel is “blocked property” under an anti-terrorist order, and “anyone providing support to the Adrian Darya 1 risks being sanctioned.”
The ship’s captain, Akhilesh Kumar, was also blacklisted under the order, which generally prohibits dealings with blocked property by US persons.
The Treasury Department said the ultimate beneficiary of the oil shipment was the Quds Force, the overseas branch of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, designated by the US as a terror group.
“Vessels like the Adrian Darya 1 enable the IRGC-QF to ship and transfer large volumes of oil, which they attempt to mask and sell illicitly to fund the regime’s malign activities and propagate terrorism,” Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Sigal Mandelker said in a statement.
“Anyone providing support to the Adrian Darya 1 risks being sanctioned. The path to relief is to change course and not allow the IRGC-QF to profit from illicit oil sales,” she added.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said wrote on Twitter that the sanctions showed “the US will not idly watch the Assad regime use Iranian oil to terrorize its own people.”
Pompeo earlier said the US had intelligence indicating the Iranian tanker was heading for Syria, despite Tehran giving assurances that its cargo would not go there. READ MORE
