An Iranian-flagged tanker is reloading oil confiscated in April by the United States after Greek authorities approved the release of the cargo, the Iranian Embassy in Athens and sources familiar with the matter said.
“The operation to transfer Iran’s stolen oil to the Lana tanker... is underway in Greek waters, and the ship will soon depart for our country with a full shipment of oil,” the Iranian Embassy in Greece said on its Twitter account, Reuters reported.
“The transfer has started,” a source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on condition of anonymity, while a second source said the process started on Friday and was expected to be completed in days.
Tehran had previously warned of “punitive action” against Athens over the case, which has strained relations between the two countries after the United States hired a ship to impound the oil from the Lana tanker, when it was anchored off Greece.
The Lana, formerly the Pegas, had been expected to sail to the United States before Greece’s Supreme Court ruled that the cargo should be returned to Iran.
The ship had been anchored off the Greek port of Piraeus since late July waiting to reload its oil consignment held on the U.S.-chartered tanker the Ice Energy.
Reacting to the development, the Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned the Greek chargé d’affaires in Tehran in May and conveyed the Islamic Republic’s “strong protest” over the matter to the diplomat.
Later, the chargé d’affaires of Switzerland, which represents the U.S.’s interests in the Islamic Republic, was also summoned by the Foreign Ministry and notified about Tehran’s protest at Washington’s violation of free trade laws.
According to information at the time, the tanker had been carrying 115,000 tons of Iranian oil.
On May 27, Iranian naval forces seized two Greek tankers in the Persian Gulf over maritime violations.
Iran’s Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said in May that the seizure of the two tankers was retaliation against Greece because it stole Iranian oil.
“The Iranian fuel was stolen off Greece, then the brave forces of the Islamic Republic made up for that by seizing an enemy ship,” Ayatollah Khamenei said in a televised speech.
“They accused Iran of theft. Who is the thief? You stole our oil. We took it back from you. This is not theft. You are a thief who stole our oil.”
The Greek official said Athens had been “very hopeful” that the order to release the Iranian tanker would lead to the release of the two Greek-flagged vessels.


 

Any possible seizure of Russian assets by the United States or move to seize Russian assets will completely destroy Moscow’s bilateral relations with Washington, TASS quoted the head of the North American Department at the Russian Foreign Ministry as saying on Saturday.
Russia’s relations with the West have deteriorated sharply since Moscow sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24, for a “special military operation”.
The West imposed unprecedented economic, financial and diplomatic sanctions, including freezing around half of Russia’s gold and foreign exchange reserves that stood near $640 billion before Feb. 24, Reuters reported.
Top Western officials, including European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, have suggested seizing the frozen reserves to help fund the future reconstruction of Ukraine.
“We warn the Americans of the detrimental consequences of such actions that will permanently damage bilateral relations, which is neither in their interests nor in ours,” Alexander Darchiev told TASS in an interview. It was not immediately clear which assets he was referring to.
The United States and its European allies have also frozen $30 billion of assets held by wealthy individuals with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, including yachts, helicopters, real estate and art, according to the U.S. administration.
The U.S. Department of Justice was seeking broader authority from Congress to seize Russian businessmen’s assets as a means to pressure Moscow over its military action in Ukraine, a prosecutor said in July.
Darchiev also said that Russia warned the United States that diplomatic ties would be badly damaged and could even be broken if Russia is declared a state sponsor of terrorism.

Salman Rushdie, the author of the book, ‘The Satanic Verses’, was stabbed during a speech at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York State and immediately transported to a hospital. Sources close to this anti-Islam writer claimed that Rushdie has not been able to talk following his surgery and may lose vision in one eye. The New York Police Department has identified the arrested assailant as 24-year-old Hadi Matar from New Jersey, but his motivation is not clear yet.
It is not unlikely to see this assassination attempt somehow connected to Tehran in the media, citing Imam Khomeini’s fatwa in 1989. It will be another piece to the puzzle that has been partially solved following the report of an alleged plot to assassinate former White House national security adviser John Bolton. Case in point, the BBC Persian network sought to introduce Matar as biased toward Iran and the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Justice charged an Iranian citizen named Shahram Poursafi with a plot to murder Bolton. Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani brushed it aside as yet another “baseless fiction”.
The sequence of allegations leveled against Iran has raised questions including whether there is a connection between these works of fiction and the nuclear negotiations.
During the latest round of nuclear talks, a draft was prepared and submitted to the capitals to be decided after deliberations. The possibility of reaching agreements in the coming days has prompted speculations that the opponents of the agreement within the U.S. and Israel have plotted these developments. After the allegation of an assassination attempt at Bolton’s life was published, some Republicans exerted pressure on the U.S. government to break off the negotiations.
Adviser to Iran’s negotiating delegation in Vienna Seyyed Mohammad Marandi has echoed the same speculation and maintained that he will not “shed a tear” for the author that has had “endless hatred and contempt for Muslims and Islam”.
Marandi tweeted, “But, isn’t it odd that as we near a potential nuclear deal, the US makes claims about a hit on Bolton... and then this happens?”
Abbas Abdi, a political analyst and a regular critic of the incumbent Iranian administration, also wrote on Twitter, “I cannot believe that the news of plotting for the assassination of Bolton and Salman Rushdie coincided at random with the JCPOA revival talks drawing to a close.”
It is not anything new to see the JCPOA opponents in the U.S. exert pressure. But their success in influencing Washington’s decision to return to the JCPOA depends on how much they have infiltrated Biden’s administration and whether the administration can withstand their pressure.