{"id":40317,"date":"2019-07-31T12:26:12","date_gmt":"2019-07-31T12:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=40317"},"modified":"2019-07-31T12:26:12","modified_gmt":"2019-07-31T12:26:12","slug":"growing-concern-for-stena-impero-tanker-crew-captured-by-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=40317","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Growing concern\u2019 for Stena Impero tanker crew captured by Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"<div readability=\"55\">\n<p>\nLONDON: The owner of the British tanker seized by Iranian forces in the Strait of Hormuz said Tuesday they are increasingly concerned about the crew\u2019s welfare.<\/p>\n<p>\nThe Stena Impero was captured on July 19 with 23 people on board as it passed through the waterway under the watch of a British warship.<\/p>\n<p>\nThe ship was\u00a0impounded at the southern port of Bandar Abbas for allegedly breaking \u201cinternational maritime rules.\u201d Other Iranian officials said the seizure was in retaliation for British forces capturing an Iranian tanker accused of carrying oil to Syria.<\/p>\n<p>\nThe Stena Impero\u2019s owners, Stena Bulk and Northern Marine Management, said\u00a0it has growing concern for the welfare of the crew confined to the vessel.<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cWith little progress being made since the vessel was seized on 19 July, we urge governments involved to find a swift resolution so our 23 valued seafarers can return to their families and move on from this ordeal,\u201d Stena Bulk\u2019s president and chief executive Erik Hanell.<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cWe reiterate that there is no evidence of a collision involving the Stena Impero, and at the time of the seizure the vessel was well within the inbound traffic separation scheme and out-with Iranian territorial waters.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\nThe company said all required navigational equipment was fully functioning and in compliance with maritime regulations.<\/p>\n<p>\nThe crew members are Indian, Russian, Latvian and Filipino. Stena Bulk said last week that they were all safe.<\/p>\n<p>\nThe seizure of the ship came after months of tensions in the Gulf between the US and its allies, and Iran. Washington ramped up sanctions against Tehran after Donald Trump withdrew last year from an international deal to restrict Iran\u2019s nuclear program.<\/p>\n<p>\nIran is accused of carrying out a series of attacks on ships near the Strait of Hormuz as a calculated response to its oil exports being reduced to a trickle by the tough sanctions.<\/p>\n<p>\nOn Monday, the UK ruled out swapping the two oil tankers, and accused Iran of breaking international law.<\/p>\n<p>\nA second British warship arrived in the Gulf to help secure passage for ships transiting the strait.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LONDON: The owner of the British tanker seized by Iranian forces in the Strait of Hormuz said Tuesday they are increasingly concerned about the crew\u2019s welfare. The Stena Impero was captured on July 19 with 23 people on board as it passed through the waterway under the watch of a British warship. The ship was\u00a0impounded&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":40318,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/40318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}