Iranian tanker leaves Gibraltar despite US plea
By Our Foreign Staff
THE IRANIAN tanker caught in a
standoff between Tehran and the West
left Gibraltar last night, shipping data
showed, hours after the British terri-
tory rejected a US request to detain the
vessel further.
British Royal Marines seized the
tanker in Gibraltar in July on suspicion
it was carrying oil to Syria, a close ally
of Iran, in violation of European Union
sanctions.
That triggered a series of events that
have heightened tensions on interna-
tional oil shipping routes through the
Gulf, including the seizure of the Brit-
ish-flagged oil tanker Stena Impero,
which remains held by the Islamic Re-
public.
Analysts had said the Iranian ship’s
release by Gibraltar could see the Stena
Impero go free.
The Grace 1, renamed the Adrian
Darya 1, left anchorage off Gibraltar
around 11pm GMT, Refinitiv shipping
data showed. Its destination was not
immediately clear.
Iran’s ambassador to Britain, Hamid
Baeidinejad, had written on Twitter
earlier that the vessel was expected to
leave last night, adding that two engi-
neering teams had been flown to Gi-
braltar.
The tanker’s detention ended last
week, but a federal court in Washing-
ton on Friday issued a warrant for the
seizure of the tanker, the oil it carries
and nearly $1 million.
Gibraltar said yesterday it could not
comply with that request because it
was bound by EU law.
“The EU sanctions regime againstIran – which is applicable in Gibraltar- is much narrower than that applica-
ble in the US,” the government said in a
statement.
“The Gibraltar Central Authority is
unable to seek an Order of the Supreme
Court of Gibraltar to provide the re-
straining assistance required by the
United States of America.”
Washington had attempted to detain
the Grace 1 on the grounds that it had
links to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary
Guard Corps (IRGC), which it has des-
ignated a terrorist organisation.
US President Donald Trump said on
Sunday that “Iran would like to talk,”
attributing the willingness to eco-
nomic conditions in the country, when
asked on Sunday by reporters about
the status of the tanker.
Iran has denied the tanker was ever
headed to Syria.
Tehran said it was ready to dispatch
its naval fleet to escort the tanker if re-
quired.
“The era of hit and run is over ... if
top authorities ask the navy, we are
ready to escort out tanker Adrian,”
Iran’s navy commander, Rear Admiral
Hossein Khanzadi, was quoted as say-
ing, by Mehr news agency.
Earlier yesterday, video and photo-
graphs showed the tanker flying the
red, green and white flag of Iran and
bearing its new name, painted in white,
on the hull. Its previous name, ‘Grace 1’,
had been painted over.
The initial impounding of the Grace
1 sparked a diplomatic row that esca-
lated when Tehran seize a British-
flagged oil tanker in the Gulf two weeks
later. That tanker, the Stena Impero, is
still detained.
The two vessels have since become
pawns in a bigger game, feeding into
wider hostilities since the United States
last year pulled out of an international
agreement to curb Iran’s nuclear pro-
gramme, and reimposed economic
sanctions.REUTERSDhaka fire leaves thousands of slum-dwellers homeless
By Saptarshi Ray in New DelhiAT LEAST 10,000 people were yester-
day left homeless after a huge blaze de-
stroyed most of a slum area of Dhaka,
the Bangladeshi capital.
The fire swept through the crowded
slum of Mirpur, destroying thousands
of homes, most of them poorly con-
structed from rudimentary materials.
Officials said that the fire broke out
in the early hours of Saturday and left
around 2,000 mostly tin shacks in
smouldering ruins. The ultimate num-
ber of people without homes could rise
as high as 50,000.
“I could not salvage a single thing. I
don’t know what I will do,” 58-year-old
Abdul Hamid, who ran a tea stall inside
the slum, told the AFP news agency.
Authorities eventually got the blaze
under control and no one was killed,
although several people had minor in-
juries, firefighters said.
Many residents – largely low-incomegarment factory workers – were not in
the slum as they had left their homes to
celebrate the Muslim Eid al-Adha holi-
day with their families. “Otherwise, the
damage would have been bigger,” po-
lice chief Golam Rabbani said.
Around 10,000 people have taken
refuge in temporary shelters at nearbyschools, which had closed for the
week-long holiday.
“We are providing them with food,
water, mobile toilets and electricity
supply,” a city official, Shafiul Azam,
said, adding that authorities were try-
ing to find permanent accommodation.Some families erected tarpaulins to
shelter them from bouts of rain during
the monsoon season, but the wet con-
ditions have turned the fields muddy.
Fires are frequent in Dhaka, with
many blaming poorly enforced safety
measures. At least 100 people have
been killed so far this year in fires
across the densely populated city.
Some residents of Mirpur said they
suspect the fire may have originated
from a short circuit, or from a stove.
Shathi Akther said she rushed out
from her home with two children when
she saw the flames, the Dhaka Tribune
reported. Her husband, Mohammed
Shohag, a small trader, helped to get
them out, but he was now missing.
Saidur Rahman, a rickshaw puller,
escaped the blaze. He lived with 10
family members in the slum. “Every-
one was in the same situation; nobody
was able to come out with anything.
We are poor people. I do not know
what to do, or where to go,” he said.10,
Number of homeless after a blaze ravaged
Mirpur in the Bangladeshi capital. The
number could rise to 50,Isil bomber kills 63 at wedding feast Wildfires hit Gran Canaria
By Ben Farmer in Islamabad
A SUICIDE bomber from Islamic State
killed at least 63 people and wounded
scores more when he detonated explo-
sives in crowds at a wedding feast in
Kabul, in the most deadly attack in Af-
ghanistan this year.
The scale of the carnage in a western
Shia district of the Afghan capital was
met with shock in a city frequently hit
by suicide attacks. It underlined fears
that a peace deal between America and
the Taliban will not end the violence.
The US called the bombing “an act of
extreme depravity”, while the Taliban,
who have themselves regularly killed
civilians in indiscriminate bombings,
said it was barbaric. The bomber, called
Abu Assim al Pakistani, blew himself
up after infiltrating a gathering of “infi-
dels”, according to the Afghan branch
of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
(Isil). Afghan Shia Muslims have re-
peatedly been hit by the group.
The blast tore through crowds of
By Our Foreign StaffAROUND 4,000 people were evacu-
ated yesterday because of wildfires
that, for the second time in a week, rav-
aged the countryside of one of Spain’s
Canary Islands.
The latest blaze broke out on Satur-
day afternoon near the town of
Valleseco on Gran Canaria. By yester-
day afternoon, the fire had taken two
different directions, burning more
than 1,700 hectares (4,200 acres) as it
continued advancing, the provincial
government said in a series of tweets.
Nine helicopters and two planes
were aiding at least 600 people, includ-
ing emergency personnel.
Officials described the fire as having
“great potential” to spread. The island
was experiencing temperatures close
to 40C (104F), humidity levels below 30
per cent and strong winds, which usu-
ally provide what experts call the “per-
fect storm” for virulent wildfires.
“The environmental damage has al-ready been done,” said Angel Victor
Torres, the region’s president, in com-
ments carried by the private Europa
Press news agency.
“We are facing a complicated situa-
tion in which the security of people is
the priority now,” the official added.
Evacuations extended to at least 40
towns in the vicinity of Valleseco.
At least 1,500 hectares (3,700 acres)
of field and low forest burned in the
same area last week.News
well-wishers and relatives, the groom
told a local television station.
The attack “changed my happiness
to sorrow”, said the young man, who
gave his name as Mirwais.
“My family, my bride are in shock,
they cannot even speak. My bride
keeps fainting,” he said. “I lost my
brother, I lost my friends, I lost my rela-
tives. I will never see happiness in my
life again.”
Ashraf Ghani, the Afghan president,
condemned “the inhumane attack”. He
added: “My top priority for now is to
reach out to the families of victims of
this barbaric attack.”
He said the Taliban movement fight-
ing his government “cannot absolve
themselves of blame, for they provide
[a] platform for terrorists”.
US and Taliban envoys have been
working to reach a deal that will see US
troops withdraw and the Taliban give
guarantees that Afghanistan will not
become a haven for transnational ter-
rorist groups such as al-Qaeda.The seized Iranian tanker has set sail from Gibraltar under its new name, Adrian Darya 1Top, residents search for their belongings among the ruins of their homes in Mirpur, a
slum area of Dhaka. People gathered on a rooftop, above, while the fire raged belowA boy mourns at the
funeral of his
brother, who was
killed in the Kabul
suicide bombingREUTERS/MOHAMMAD PONIR HOSSAINIsraeli forces
shoot three
Palestinians
at Gaza fence
By Sara Elizabeth Williams
THREE Palestinians were shot and
killed by an Israeli helicopter and tank
at the northern Gaza border fence in a
marked escalation of violence along
the tense stretch of land.
Israel opened fire on what it de-
scribed as “armed suspects” several
hours after Palestinian militants in
Gaza fired three Qassam rockets at Is-
rael late on Saturday.
Yesterday morning, Hamas’s health
ministry reported three men dead and
a fourth injured following the incident
just north of Beit Lahia.
Hamas said in a statement that the
deaths of Mahmoud al-Walayda, 24,
Mohammed Abu Namus, 27, and Mo-
hammed Samir al-Taramsi, 26, were
“another crime by the Israeli occupa-
tion to be added to its grim toll against
the Palestinian people’s rights, land
and holy sites”.
No casualties were reported follow-
ing Saturday’s rocket attack on the
southern Israeli town of Sderot. Israel’s
military said two rockets were inter-
cepted by the Iron Dome air defence
system, but did not comment on the
third.
Saturday was the second consecu-
tive night that residents of southern
Israel heard the wail of rocket sirens,
after a rocket fired on Friday was inter-
cepted. Israel responded to the rocket
attack by carrying out strikes on what
it said were two of Hamas’s “under-
ground targets” in northern and cen-
tral Gaza.
Tensions along the Gaza border
fence, particularly in the north, have
been roiling since March 2018, when
weekly demonstrations began taking
place just inside the border fence, of-
ten followed by bloody clashes.
Since then, Gaza-related violence
has seen seven Israelis and at least 305
Palestinians killed. Both Hamas and Is-
rael accuse the other of deliberately
escalating the situation.
But the recent rise in tensions,
which began on Aug 1 when a Palestin-
ian was shot by Israeli forces during a
firefight as he tried to breach the bor-
der, has threatened to set the tinder-
box alight.
Hamas recently warned that “the
rage and stress that the Palestinian
people live in is going to blow up in Is-
rael’s face if the blockade over the Gaza
Strip is not removed.”
But the loosening of any of the re-
strictions shaping Gazans’ lives looks
unlikely with the heightened security
situation and with Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who
has long leaned to the Right for sup-
pot, facing a make-or-break election in
mid-September.
Vessel in international
dispute sets sail hours after
America’s latest request to
hold it longer is rejected
305
The number of Palestinians who
have been killed since March 2018 in
Gaza-related violence
Gran Canaria fire has set more than 4,
acres alight and spread in two directionsANGEL MEDINA G/EPA-EFE/REXThe Daily Telegraph Monday 19 August 2019 Š^ ** 11
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