It was the end of May Iranians soldiers raided the Greek tankers Prudent Warrior and Delta Poseidon in the Persian Gulf in retaliation for Iranian interests seizing the ship Lana at the Karystos anchorage at the request of the United States. More than five months later, two tankers are being held hostage by the Revolutionary Guards in the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas as Tehran makes a series of demands to allow them to sail. What has happened in recent months and revealed by “K” is an unprecedented thriller. At the same time, those who are directly involved in this, sharply criticize the manipulation of the government. Among other things, they refer to information according to which officials of the Iranian embassy in Athens warned in a timely manner of the possibility of armed Iranian soldiers seizing Greek ships as hostages in response to the Greek conduct of the Lana case.

In mid-October, thanks to the initiative of the shipowner, Greek and Filipino sailors, the Prudent Warrior crew, who had been on the tanker since May 27, was replaced by their colleagues. Tehran did not let the tankers sail, but gave the go-ahead to an unusual hostage exchange. Only the Cypriot skipper remained on board, with whom information “K” says that the rest of the crew literally got into a fight. On October 4, the crew of the second hostage tanker “Delta Poseidon” was replaced.

The Ministry of Merchant Shipping is formally responsible for negotiating the release of the two tankers. On October 27, Coast Guard Vice-Captain Antonis Doumanis, head of the relevant Office of Naval Operations, returned from a secret mission to Iran, the second in two months. At the end of September, Ministers of State and Shipping Ministers Giorgos Gerapetritis and Yiannis Plakiotakis met in Megaro Maximos with the owners of the two tankers, with the information that the negotiations had not led to tangible results. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is not involved in the talks, although according to sources well versed in the matter, the former general secretary and current commander of the EMP, Themistoklis Demiris, was initially brought in to deal with the crisis. At the local level, the Greek ambassador and consul in Tehran is taking the initiative today.

Some information also speaks of secret meetings with representatives of the Iranian side in one of the states of the Emirates. Government officials who were asked about this conveyed to K an atmosphere of optimism that the matter would be finally resolved, however, noting that the current situation in Tehran is dire and that no one can know with absolute certainty whether their Iranian interlocutor is ill. fully expressing the will of Tehran or not.

Tehran is reportedly making claims that cannot be met due to the sanctions that are still in place against the regime.

One of the conditions that Iran has put forward as a precondition for the release of the two tankers is that the crews, and especially their owners, waive any claims for damages, despite the fact that the two shipping companies have suffered millions in losses as a result of months of arrest. their courts. tankers. Fully cross-reported also states that Tehran has requested repayment of a €1.66 billion debt from Hellenic Petroleum to Iran for previous purchases of petroleum products, with the same sources of information, however, explaining that due to sanctions against Iran (imposed in in 2018) ELPE is essentially prohibited from proceeding with the repayment of the amount.

Some information, however, denied by the Iranian side, also says that Tehran requested the intervention of the Greek government to return four newly built ships to Iran’s state oil export company, which, after the activation of sanctions, were auctioned and ended up in the hands of a Greek shipowner.

In May, Greece confiscated oil of Iranian origin from the Lana reservoirs in accordance with a bilateral agreement between Greece and the United States on judicial cooperation. He even began loading his cargo onto a US-chartered tanker. However, after the Revolutionary Guards attacked two tankers, and in order to defuse the crisis, the decision of the first instance to confiscate was overturned in record time by the Court of Appeal, which ordered the oil to be returned to the Lana tanks. In fact, the paradox of the Court of Appeal of Chalkis was recorded, refuting what he cites in detail in the testimony of an American FBI agent regarding the origin of oil. “The oil in Lana does not come from Oman, as stated in the cargo manifest submitted to the Evia Board of Appeal. I consider the submitted documents to be falsified, ”said the FBI agent.

“Lana” will sail from the anchorage of Piraeus at the same time as the departure of two tankers belonging to Greece from Bandar Abbas. One of the issues that worries Tehran is the possibility of a US response once the Lana is found in international waters.