British tanker Stena Impero free to leave, Iran ambassador to UK says

The detained British-flagged tanker Stena Impero is “free to leave,” Iran’s ambassador to the UK, Hamid Baeidinejad, tweeted on Monday.

The July 19 seizure of the ship, two weeks after Britain detained an Iranian tanker off Gibraltar, ratcheted up tensions in the region in the wake of attacks on other merchant vessels that Washington blamed on Tehran. Iran denied responsibility for those attacks.

“The British-flagged tanker ‘Stena Impero’, pursuant to the completion of the judicial and legal process, is now free to leave,” the ambassador wrote.

An Iranian government spokesman said on Monday that all legal steps had been completed for the release of the detained tanker but that he did not know when the vessel would be released, Reuters reported.