Gibraltar detained on Thursday a super tanker carrying crude oil to Syria because it had “reasonable grounds” to believe that the Grace 1 ship was violating European Union sanctions against Syria, the Chief Minister of Gibraltar, Fabian Picardo, said in a statement.
Gibraltar has reason to believe that the super tanker was carrying crude oil to Syria’s Banyas Refinery, which is owned by an entity subject to European Union sanctions against Syria, Picardo said.

The Grace 1 has sailed from the Persian Gulf all the way around Africa and was seized at the mouth of the Mediterranean today.
Shipping data that Reuters has reviewed suggests that the tanker was loaded with Iranian oil off the Iranian coast. Yet, the tanker documents point that the oil comes from Iraq, according to Reuters.
 According to TankerTrackers, the Iranian supertanker Grace 1 departed from Iran in the middle of April for what they believed to be Syria by sailing all around Africa.

TankerTrackers, however, is not convinced that Grace 1 was loaded with crude oil. The tanker tracking firm analyzed imagery of the tanker but couldn’t see it loading crude oil.

Royal Marines abseiled down ropes from a Wildcat helicopter in a dramatic operation to seize an oil tanker off Gibraltar today.
The operation which took only minutes was launched under the cloak of darkness shortly after midnight.

One group of marines boarded the ship from the helicopter while others arrived by rib speedboat, together with 16 Gibraltarian police.
A military source said: “It was a professional job - what you would expect of the Royal Marines.”

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