Gibraltar releases Iranian regime's Grace 1

Gibraltar decided on Thursday (August 15) to free the Iranian regime's oil tanker Grace 1, detained off the British overseas territory six weeks ago by Royal Marines, paving the way for a possible swap for a British-flagged tanker seized by the Iranian regime in the Gulf.

The two tankers have become pawns in the standoff between Iranian regime and the West, their fate tangled up in the diplomatic differences between the EU's big powers and the United States.

The Grace 1 was seized by commandos in darkness off peninsula on July 4.

Gibraltar Chief Minister Fabian Picardo decided to lift the detention order after formal written assurances from Tehran that the ship will not discharge its 2.1 million barrels of oil in Syria to the Assad regime, but added that the ship had not yet been released.

It was not immediately clear when the Grace 1 would sail as the United States made a late request to seize the vessel.