The tanker Stena Impero, which has been chained up in Iran over the past two months, will soon be allowed to leave. That is what Erik Hanell, CEO of the Swedish owner of the ship, Stena Bulk, says.

An official of the Iranian port authorities later informed the Iranian press agency Fars on 22 September that the ship will be released soon. He could not say exactly when the ship will be able to leave the port of Bandar Abbas.

The Swedish cargo vessel was seized by Iran on 19 July. The Iranian authorities accused the captain of breaking maritime laws. That was two weeks after an Iranian tanker was detained in the British overseas territory of Gibraltar. That tanker was allowed to leave in August.

Hanell told the Swedish TV channel SVT that he had received information that the ship would be released. ‘We understand from this that the political decision on this has already been taken and that there is nothing to prevent the ship from being released. But we do not want to pre-empt things and we want to see the ship leave Iran’s territorial waters first.’

Early September, Iran had already released seven of the 23 crew members of the Stena Impero.

Source: ANP.

Picture: A Stena Bulk vessel (by BoH).

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