Greece has been under pressure by the United States to not provide assistance to the Iranian tanker Adrian Darya (formerly Grace 1), which has recently been released from UK custody despite Washington's requests to the contrary and is now supposedly headed toward a Greek port, and pledged to not help the vessel complete its shipment of oil to Syria, Greek First Deputy Foreign Minister Miltiadis Varvitsiotis said on Wednesday
ATHENS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st August, 2019) Greece has been under pressure by the United States to not provide assistance to the Iranian tanker Adrian Darya (formerly Grace 1), which has recently been released from UK custody despite Washington's requests to the contrary and is now supposedly headed toward a Greek port, and pledged to not help the vessel complete its shipment of oil to Syria, Greek First Deputy Foreign Minister Miltiadis Varvitsiotis said on Wednesday.The tanker was detained for over a month in Gibraltar on suspicion of carrying crude oil to Syria in violation of EU sanctions. Despite the United States' request that it continue holding the vessel, Gibraltar released Grace 1 with its entire cargo and four crew members on August 15 after reportedly receiving written guarantees that the tanker's cargo would not be delivered to Syria. Upon its release, the ship reportedly headed toward the Greek port of Kalamata.
"The truth is, we experienced pressure and there were concrete requests sent by the United States," Varvitsiotis told the ANT1 broadcaster, stressing that Athens does not want to jeopardize its relations with Washington in any way.
He added that there is no port in Greece big enough to dock a vessel of that size, but the tanker could still anchor in Greek waters, in which case Athens will be forced to respond.
"We in no way want to facilitate the transfer of oil to Syria. We have signaled clearly that we would not assist [the tanker] in traveling to Syria," the diplomat reiterated.
According to the diplomat, the stances of Europe and the United States on the matter differ, with the latter pursuing "a very harsh policy against Iran" that might damage the traditionally friendly relations between them.
Varvitsiotis stressed that Athens wants the situation in the Persian Gulf to normalize since numerous vessels acting in Greece's interests currently operate in that area.
