mo4ch:>Iran to speed up legal process for seized British oil tanker Stena Impero – Zarif | Mo4ch News

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif promised to “expedite” the legal affairs with regards to the UK-flagged tanker Stena Impero which it seized last month amid a diplomatic row with London.“We will expedite the legal process for the British tanker that is now in our custody after they basically committed sea crimes by taking our ship,” Zarif said while on a trip to Malaysia on Thursday, as cited by Reuters. His comments come one week after meeting with Erik Hanell, the chief of Swedish shipping firm Stena Bulk, which owns the seized vessel. Hanell asked Tehran to release the ship and its crew of 23.Tensions over a series of ship seizures began in early July, when Iranian oil tanker Grace 1 was boarded by British commandos and Gibraltar police off the southern coast of Spain. Its crew was investigated for alleged attempts to transport oil to Syria in violation of EU sanctions. The ship, by that time renamed Adrian Darya 1, was eventually released despite the US issuing an arr…