UK condemns Iran over oil delivery to Assad regime

LONDON

Iran’s ambassador to London has been summoned by British Foreign Office after a tanker -- which was detained by Gibraltar authorities but later released over assurances -- delivered its oil load to Syrian regime.

“Iran has shown complete disregard for its own assurances over Adrian Darya 1,” British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said on Tuesday.

Raab said this “sale of oil to Assad’s brutal regime is part of a pattern of behavior by the Government of Iran designed to disrupt regional security.”

“This includes illegally supplying weapons to Houthi insurgents in Yemen, support for Hezbollah terrorists and most recently its attempts to hijack commercial ships passing through the Gulf,” Raab said.

A statement from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: “Iran repeatedly gave assurances to the Government of Gibraltar that the Grace 1/Adrian Darya 1 would not deliver oil to any EU-sanctioned entity in Syria or elsewhere.”

“It is now clear that Iran has breached these assurances and that the oil has been transferred to Syria and Assad’s murderous regime,” it said.

"Iran’s actions represent an unacceptable violation of international norms and the UK will raise the issue at the United Nations later this month.

“We want Iran to come in from the cold but the only way to do that is to keep its word and comply with the rules based international system,” Raab also said.

On July 4, Gibraltar had detained Iran’s Grace 1 tanker over claims that it was delivering crude oil to Syria in violation of EU sanctions.

Iran also seized a British-flagged tanker in the strategic Strait of Hormuz in a retaliatory action.

Iranian tanker was released by the Gibraltar on assurances by the Iran government that the oil would not be shipped to Assad regime.