July 29, 2022
The Greek government has freed the Iranian tanker it seized in April (when it wasn’t Iranian), but Iran has not yet freed the two Greek tankers it seized in retaliation.
That is likely because the United States has drained much of the Iranian oil from the seized tanker and went to court trying to keep it and drain the rest. But the US lost July 26 when the Greek Supreme Court ruled it could not siphon off the Iranian oil and had to return what it had already siphoned off.
The tanker saga is just the latest in a long series of instances where the Islamic Republic responds to foreign actions it does not like with a coercive response, such as taking foreigners as hostages, rather than diplomatic action. The basic tenor of its foreign policy has not changed in the 43 years since it took the US embassy and its staff hostage in response to the US allowing the Shah to be hospitalized in New York.
But the latest episode of hostage taking is perhaps the strangest of the lot.
It began in April when the Russian-flagged and -owned tanker Pegas, with 19 Russian crewmen aboard, suffered mechanical problems and pulled into a Greek port. The Greek government seized it, invoking EU sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.
Then it was discovered that the 104,000 tons of oil on board the tanker was Iranian. The US called on Greece to allow the US to offload the oil under a US court order seeking Iranian government property to fulfill $60 billion in awards US courts have given American citizens as victims of Iranian terrorism.
Around this time, Russia said it had sold the tanker to Iran, which renamed it Lana—at which point Iran landed Pasdaran from helicopters on two Greek tankers in the Persian Gulf May 27 and forced them to sail to Bandar Abbas. Both the Greek Foreign Ministry and the Hellenic Coast Guard have labeled this an act of piracy.
With the tanker in Greece no longer Russian, it was no longer subject to EU sanctions and was released. But the Greek firm that has been servicing the Pegas/Lana said it had not been paid and prevented it from leaving Greece.
A Greek court had ruled that the US court order on seizing Iranian property was enforceable in Greece. But that ruling was appealed to a higher court, which overturned the lower court decision and ordered the tanker’s oil returned to Iran. The US then appealed that decision and has now lost that appeal.
After the first court’s decision, the US hired a Greek tanker firm, Times Navigation, to offload the oil from the Pegas/Lana and carry it to Newport, Texas, where it would be auctioned off. Times Navigation provided two small tankers to do the job. The first tanker, Ice Energy, finished offloading 60,000 tons of the 104,000-ton cargo on June 2 and moved away to allow the second tanker to offload the rest. But the second court then overturned the lower court order allowing the offloading and so the remainder of the Iranian oil has not been moved.
Iran wants the 60,000 tons of crude that was shifted to the Greek tanker returned to the Lana.
On top of all this, Maritime Executive reports that the Pegas/Lana has failed an inspection owing to multiple deficiencies and does not have permission to sail until more work is done on the vessel.
Meanwhile, the two Greek Tankers seized in the Persian Gulf by Iran remain anchored in Bandar Abbas with their 49 Greek crewmen stuck there and not allowed to return home by order of the Iranian government.
The US government told the Greek courts that the oil on board the Pegas/Lana had been transferred to it from an Iranian tanker in mid-ocean when the ship was Russian-owned. That is a standard method used by Iran to hide the origin of its oil so it can be sold as if it originated from some country other than Iran. It is widely assumed that many Iranian oil shipments have been disguised after being shifted to Russian tankers.
