Sputnik – Seven crew members of the detained Stena Impero oil tanker, including a Russian sailor, have left Iran, the press attache of the Russian Embassy in Tehran, Andrey Ganenko, has stated.











"Seven sailors have really left Iran, today they have left for Dubai. Concerning the rest of our citizens, they remain on board as long as the ship is docked", the Russian diplomat said.


He added that the shipowner insisted that 16 crew members must remain on board so that the vessel could leave the port after being released.

The statement comes after Ganenko stated on 3 September that seven crew members of Stena Impero, which Iranian military seized in the Strait of Hormuz in July, had been allowed to leave the Islamic Republic.

Stena Impero was seized by the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in the Strait of Hormuz on 19 July over an alleged violation of international maritime rules. The move came two weeks after Iran's own Grace 1 oil tanker had been seized by UK marines over an alleged breach of the European Union's sanctions on Syria.