ATHENS (Dispatches) -- An Iranian-flagged tanker is reloading oil stolen in April by the United States after Greek authorities approved the release of the cargo, Iran’s embassy in Athens and sources familiar with the matter said.
“The operation to transfer Iran’s stolen oil to the Lana ... is underway in Greek waters, and the ship will soon depart for our country with a full shipment of oil,” Iran’s embassy in Greece said on its Twitter account.
“The transfer has started,” a source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on condition of anonymity, while a second source said the process started on Friday and was expected to be completed in days.
Tehran had previously warned of “punitive action” against Athens over the case, which has strained relations between the two countries after the United States hired a ship to steal the oil from the Lana tanker, when it was anchored off Greece.
The U.S. State Department said in July it was “respectful that this case went through the Greek judicial process”.
The Lana, formerly the Pegas, had been expected to sail to the United States before Greece’s supreme court ruled the cargo should be returned to Iran.
The ship had been anchored off the Greek port of Piraeus since late July waiting to reload part of its oil consignment held on the U.S.-chartered tanker the Ice Energy.
The removal of oil from the Lana prompted Iranian forces in May to seize two Greek tankers in the Persian Gulf.
Iran’s foreign ministry also summoned Greek chargé d’affaires to Tehran and conveyed the Islamic Republic’s “strong protest” to the piracy.
Later, the chargé d’affaires of Switzerland, which represents U.S. interests in the Islamic Republic, was summoned and notified of Tehran’s protest at Washington’s violation of free trade laws.
Last month, the Supreme Civil and Criminal Court of Greece upheld a verdict issued earlier by a court of appeal in favor of the return of the oil cargo to the Iranian vessel. Celebrating the development at the time, the Iranian Embassy called it “another fiasco for pirates!”