US President Donald Trump confers with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during a multilateral meeting with Western Hemisphere leaders about Venezuela during the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York City, New York, US, September 25, 2019. The United States on Wednesday announced sanctions on Chinese companies for buying Iranian oil, stepping up pressure despite European attempts to arrange talks between Washington and Tehran.
"We haven't been accused of anything. Not through any formal letter or anything else to the company. We are still in the dark over why we are anchored in Bandar Abbas," Stena Bulk CEO Erik Hanell told Reuters by telephone. "The enemy assumes that we are in charge of any sophisticated job," he said. Without elaborating, he added that the Houthis were capable of "changing the entire field of war."British-flagged oil tanker Stena Impero, seized by Iran more than two months ago, was Wednesday given the final clearance to leave, foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said.
"The lifting of the detention order against Steno Impero was finalised today, but the investigation of some of its violations and environmental damage remains open," ministry spokesman Mousavi said in a tweet. He did not, however, specify who Japan thought was behind the attacks, which Riyadh, Washington and the leading EU powers have blamed on Iran. Japan has traditionally had friendly ties with Iran and Abe has been trying to ease the tensions between Tehran and Tokyo's closest ally, Washington.
"It's now up to the Iranians and the United States to seize these conditions and work together to relaunch momentum."British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called for the immediate release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and other dual nationals imprisoned in Iran during a meeting with Iran's President Rouhani in New York on Tuesday, a Downing Street spokesperson said in a statement.
Rouhani said Tuesday that his US counterpart Trump needed to restore trust before the possibility of a meeting. But in a speech full of praise of unilateralism and criticism of China, Trump made clear he would not ease economic pressure on Iran -- a condition set by Rouhani for any meeting. Iran said on Tuesday that a statement by Britain, France and Germany accusing it of responsibility for attacks on Saudi oil facilities showed that they lacked the will to confront US "bullying", the semi-official Mehr news agency reported.
"The detention order on Stena Impero had been lifted and the vessel is going through the proceedings to leave Bandar Abbas" port, Mohammad Rastad, head of Iran's Ports and Maritime Organization, was quoted as saying on Tuesday by the semi-official news agency ILNA. "The legal process has finished and based on that the conditions for letting the oil tanker go free have been fulfilled and the oil tanker can move," government spokesman Ali Rabiei told a news conference."We understand that the political decision has been taken to release the ship," Stena Bulk's chief executive Hanell told Swedish television station SVT.
"President Trump and I both want to give diplomacy every opportunity to succeed," said Secretary of State Pompeo. Speaking to Fox News Sunday, Pompeo added that he was confident that Trump would take action if such deterrence measures fail and this was well understood by the Iranian leadership. Stena Impero, the British-flagged tanker detained by Iran on July 19, may be released within hours, the head of the Swedish firm that owns the vessel said on Sunday.
"Your presence has always brought pain and misery for the region. The farther you keep yourselves from our region and our nations, the more security there will be for our region."Saturday, September 21Saudi Arabia will take appropriate steps to respond to an attack on its oil facilities if its investigation confirms that Iran was responsible, a senior official said on Saturday.
Riyadh has rejected a claim by Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi movement that it carried out the strikes on two oil plants that initially halved Saudi production, the largest-ever assault on oil facilities in the world's top oil exporter.
Reuters reporters were shown repair work underway at both locations, with cranes erected around burnt-out stabilisation columns, which form part of oil-gas separation units.Trump says new sanctions on Iran