The US
Justice Department issued a warrant Friday for the seizure of the Iranian oil supertanker Grace 1, one day after a Gibraltar judge allowed the release of the detained vessel.
The Justice Department alleged the ship was part of a scheme "to unlawfully access the US financial system to support illicit shipments to
Syria from
Iran by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps," which the US has designated a foreign terrorist organization.
There was no immediate word from
Britain or Gibraltar over whether they would act on the warrant, as Iran said it was sending a new crew to pilot the tanker and its 2.1 million barrels of oil.