BALADI NEWS
Greece has vowed not to offer assistance to the Iranian oil tanker at the centre of a standoff between Tehran and the West, as Washington pressures its allies not to help the ship.
The Adrian Darya 1, previously known as the Grace 1, is sailing through the Mediterranean with two million barrels of crude oil on board after being released from Gibraltar.
The British territory seized the tanker on July 4 on suspicion that it was carrying the oil to Syria in violation of EU sanctions, but Iran denies this.
The U.S. wants the tanker detained again and has demanded that Greece and nearby Cyprus refrain from offering any assistance as the ship sails eastward.
'We have sent a clear message that we would not want to facilitate the trafficking of this oil to Syria in any instance,' Greek deputy foreign minister Miltiadis Varvitsiotis promised today.
The tanker was released on Sunday night after a five-week standoff which threatened to escalate into a Middle East conflict.
It is now sailing east with trackers giving its stated destination as the Greek port of Kalamata, with an expected arrival date of August 26.
The minister said Greece did not have the port facilities to accommodate such a large ship, but did not discount the possibility that it could drop anchor in Greek territorial waters.
Source: Daily Mail Online.