India has sent a team of experts to Iran to inspect the oil tanker that has been impounded by Iranian naval forces over causing widespread pollution in the waters of the Persian Gulf, Indian media say.
India’s Directorate General of Shipping sent a delegation including a senior official with the Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) and members of Indian Register of Shipping (IRS) to Iran’s southern port of Bandar Abbas, the Press Trust of India reported on Tuesday.

According to the report, the delegation will inspect the tanker MT Desh Shanti technically.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Araqchi said on August 17 that Tehran had invited Indian experts to inspect the Indian ship.

Araqchi said that, on August 6, Iran had received a warning from the International Maritime Organization (IMO) about MT Desh Shanti polluting Iranian waters.

The oil tanker was impounded by the naval forces of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) on August 13 over causing sea pollution.

The vessel was carrying 140,000 tons of Basrah crude from Iraq to India.

The director general for maritime pollution affairs at the Iranian Department of the Environment, Nima Pourang, told Fars news agency on August 16 that the oil tanker had been impounded because it discharged its oily ballast water 30 miles away from Iran’s Lavan Island in the Persian Gulf, causing a ten-mile-long oil slick on the sea.

By Press TV

 

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