Oil tanker sanctioned by US, later found off Iran was hijacked, says captain

A missing crude oil tanker subject to US government sanctions over alleged involvement in Iran’s oil exportation was hijacked, according to the ship’s captain.
A picture shows supertanker Grace 1 off the coast of Gibraltar on July 6, 2019. - Iran demanded on July 5, 2019 that Britain immediately release an oil tanker it has detained in Gibraltar, accusing it of acting at the bidding of the United States. Authorities in Gibraltar, a British overseas territory on Spain's southern tip at the western entrance to the Mediterranean, said they suspected the tanker was carrying crude to Syria in violation of EU sanctions. (Photo by JORGE GUERRERO / AFP) (Photo cred
A picture shows Iranian supertanker Grace 1 off the coast of Gibraltar, where the UK had detained it, on July 6, 2019. - JORGE GUERRERO/AFP via Getty Images
Al Monitor: The Pulse of the Middle East
Al-Monitor Staff

A missing crude oil tanker subject to US government sanctions over alleged involvement in Iran’s oil exportation was hijacked, according to the ship’s captain.

The MT Gulf Sky, which has been based in the United Arab Emirates for months, stopped transmitting its location on July 5. The Dominica-flagged ship was then spotted on satellite imagery just a few miles off Iran’s coast near Hormuz Island on Tuesday by TankerTrackers, a website that monitors maritime oil trade, the Associated Press first reported.

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