Greece rejects Iranian tanker after warning from US
By Raf Sanchez
Middle east correspondent
GREECE has said it would not give safe
harbour to Iran’s Grace 1 oil tanker after
the US threatened to impose sanctions
on any state that aided the ship.
The Iranian oil tanker left Gibraltar
over the weekend, after a month in Brit-
ish detention, and was believed to be
heading east across the Mediterranean
towards the Greek port of Kalamata.
Washington warned Athens that
there could be diplomatic and eco-
nomic consequences if it helped the
ship, which is carrying around two mil-
lion barrels of oil worth $130 million.
“We have made clear that anyone
who touches it, anyone who supports
it, anyone who allows a ship to dock is
at risk of receiving sanctions from theUnited States,” said Mike Pompeo, the
US secretary of state.
Hours after Mr Pompeo’s warning
yesterday, Greece announced that the
ship was not able to dock at any Greek
port nor unload its cargo of oil.
Miltiadis Varvitsiotis, the deputy for-
eign minister, said the 1,000-ft long
ship was too large for any Greek port
and that Greece would abide by EU
sanctions against transporting oil to
Syria. “We are sending a message that
we are not prepared to facilitate the
course of this ship to Syria,” Mr Varvit-siotis said. He added that if the ship en-
tered Greek waters or anchored
offshore, then authorities would “see”
what to do next.
The US says the ship and its oil are
being used to support Iran’s Revolu-
tionary Guard, which Washington con-
siders a terrorist group. The Trump
administration made an unsuccessful
effort to get Gibraltar to detain the ship
on those grounds. If the Grace 1 – now
renamed the Adrian Darya 1 – enters
Greek waters, then the US could make
a second effort to have an allied gov-ernment seize the ship. Iran has ac-
knowledged the ship is linked to the
Revolutionary Guard but denies that it
was ever heading to Syria. Tehran has
warned Washington not to try to inter-
fere with the ship’s passage from
Gibraltar.
EU states say they will only move
against the ship if it attempts to carry
its oil to Syria, which is under Euro-
pean sanctions.
The Trump administration’s contin-
uing focus on the ship is likely to only
delay the release of the Stena Impero,the British-flagged tanker seized last
month by the Revolutionary Guard,
along with its 23 crew members.
Iran initially indicated that the Stena
Impero had been seized in retaliation
for the Grace 1 but now claims that the
ship violated maritime rules in the Per-
sian Gulf.
Australia announced yesterday that
it was joining the US-led naval mission
to protect civilian ships in the Persian
Gulf. Scott Morrison, the prime minis-
ter, said he was sending a frigate and
surveillance plane to take part.Qatar breaks
with Beijing
over Muslim
detention
By Raf Sanchez
Middle east correspondentQATAR has reportedly rescinded its
support of Beijing for detaining mil-
lions of Uighur Muslims, in a fresh split
among Islamic states over how to han-
dle the mass persecution by China.
The small Gulf state was initially
among 37 countries – including Saudi
Arabia, Pakistan and Egypt – that wrote
to the UN to defend China’s detention
of Muslims as legitimate “counter-ter-
rorism and deradicalisation measures”.
Qatar is now changing course and
has written to the United Nations Hu-
man Rights Council asking that its
name be withdrawn from the support-
ive letter, according to Bloomberg.
Ali al-Mansouri, Qatar’s ambassador
to the UN in Geneva, said: “We wish to
maintain a neutral stance and we offer
our mediation and facilitation ser-
vices.”
Muslim states have been deeply di-
vided over how to respond to China’s
round-up of an estimated two million
Uighur Muslims.
Turkey has condemned China and
accused Beijing of “torture and politi-
cal brainwashing in internment
camps”.
But other leading Muslim countries,
notably Saudi Arabia, have insisted that
China is justified in its approach and
praised the Chinese government for in-
stilling “a stronger sense of happiness,
fulfilment and security” among Uighur
Muslims.
Qatar’s move takes it to a middle po-
sition, where it is no longer openly
praising China, but nor is it outright
critical.China criticises
UK amid fears
over arrested
consulate man
By Nicola Smith
and Michael Zhang in Hong Kong
CHINA warned the UK not to meddle
in its affairs over Hong Kong yesterday
after the arrest of a British consulate of-
ficial worsened already strained ties
between Beijing and London.
Simon Cheng, 28, a trade and in-
vestment officer at the Hong Kong
consulate’s Scottish Development Inter-
national section, went missing on Aug 8
on the way back from a business event
in the Chinese city of Shenzhen. Britain
has said it is “extremely” concerned.
News of his disappearance became
public on Tuesday, prompting China
yesterday to confirm that it was hold-
ing him on allegations of violating local
law, without revealing any further de-
tails. Geng Shuang, the Chinese foreign
ministry spokesman, said the case was
linked to a statute pertaining to minor
violations. Individuals can be held for
as long as 15 days.
“The British side has made a lot of er-
roneous remarks on Hong Kong,” Mr
Geng said, urging London “to stop
pointing fingers and making accusa-
tions”. “He is not British. He is Chinese,
so this is entirely China’s internal af-
fairs,” Mr Geng said of Mr Cheng.
It was reported that Mr Cheng, who
was born in Hong Kong, holds a British
national overseas passport, a document
specific to Hong Kong entitling the
bearer to consular assistance but not the
automatic right to live in the UK.
Friends of Mr Cheng staged a rally
outside the British consulate in central
Hong Kong yesterday urging Boris
Johnson and Nicola Sturgeon to “save”
the young man from a Chinese jail.
Threat of sanctions by
Washington leads Athens
to bar oil vessel ‘bound
for Syria’ from its ports
World news
True blue Indian college girls dressed as Hindu deity Lord Krishna taking part in Janamashtami Festival celebrations at
Shreemati Nathibai Damodar Thackersey Women’s University in Mumbai yesterday. Blue represents his infinite force.DIVYAKANT SOLANKI/EPA-EFE/REX14 ***^ Thursday 22 August 2019 The Daily Telegraph
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