Iranian oil tanker shuts down its tracker near Syria

The Iran oil tanker Adrian Darya 1 turned off its tracking beacon in the location near Syria on Tuesday despite the US had imposed sanctions on the tanker’s captain.

Adrian Darya 1 oil tanker (photo: AP)

The Iranian oil tanker Adrian Darya 1, formerly named Grace 1 shuts down its Automatic Identification System when being detected heading to Syria on Tuesday. As the ship-tracing website MarineTraffic.com showed at 4pm local time on Monday (September 2nd), the Adrian Darya 1 oil tanker was off the coast of Lebanon and Syria.

According to Ranjith Raja, a lead analyst of data company Renitiv, the Iran’s Adrian Darya 1 oil tanker could discharge its cargo in Syria then move its oil to smaller ships which allows oil to be brought in the port.

Raja also insisted "The Iranian oil going to Syria is not something new. This is a known fact”.

Furthermore, another website Tanker Trackers presented its consideration that the Iranian oil tanker is arriving to Syria. It posted on its Twitter "It is now safe to assume she is in Syria's territorial waters".

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had warned that the Iran’s oil tanker would reach to Tartus port, Syria and said “it was a big mistake to trust Zarif” in his Twitter on Friday (August 31) after this oil tanker change its route which not to go to Greece.

The Iranian oil tanker Adrian Darya 1 had been released by Gibraltar authority in August, a month after being seized for the UK’s suspect of violating EU sanctions on Syria when Iran had guaranteed that the tanker would not carry oil to Syria.

The US had even accused the oil tanker of connecting to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps which was put on the terrorist organizations list and announced to sanction any inpiduals or organizations helping this tanker.

AP, Reuters ( Van Nguyen )