Iran says UK might free its Grace 1 oil tanker

Iran's expects that the United Kingdom might free its seized oil tanker after some documents were exchanged that would help secure its release.

“Official and unofficial documents have been exchanged to resolve the matter and we hope the problem will be dealt with in the very near future,” Semi-official FARS new agency cited Jalil Eslami, deputy for maritime affairs at Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization, as saying.

The future of a U.K.-flagged tanker that Iran seized later in the Persian Gulf depends on “the necessary judicial processes,” Eslami added.

Last month Iran's Grace 1 tanker was stopped and seized by the Royal Navy off the shore of Gibraltar on suspicion it carried Iranian crude oil to Syria in breach of European Union sanctions against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Two weeks after the ship's seizure, Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps captured a UK-flagged, Sweden-owned, vessel for breaking "international maritime" rules in the Strait of Hormuz.

Tanker traffic through the Strait - where a fifth of the world's oil passes - has become the focus of a standoff between Iran and the US, which has beefed up its military presence in the Gulf since May.

Britain, which repeatedly ruled out any exchange and has since been giving UK-flagged vessels in the region a naval escort, joined a US-led security mission in the narrow passageway on August 5 in order to secure maritime traffic.