Stena Bulk chief executive Erik Hanell has personally asked Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to release the seized tanker Stena Impero and its crew.
The pair met in Stockholm on Tuesday while Zarif was in Sweden for bilateral talks with the Swedish foreign minister. They were discussing regional and international issues, including security of the Persian Gulf.
The 50,000-dwt Stena Impero (built 2018) has been held in Bandar Abbas since July 19 in what appeared a tit-for-tat reprisal from Iran for the UK’s arrest of the 300,000-dwt VLCC Grace 1 (built 1997). The Iranian tanker has now been released and renamed Adrian Darya.
Hanell said he had a “constructive dialogue ” with the Iranian minister.
“We shared information around the case. It was important for us to emphasise the importance of the release of the 23 crew members of Indian, Russian, Latvian and Filipino nationalities, who have now been held on board for nearly five weeks and whose families were getting extremely concerned about their loved ones ,” he said.
He also thanked the minister for allowing Stena access to the vessel and crew to call home.
Stena Bulk has also written to all the leaders of the countries who have crew members detained on board Stena Impero and asked for their support in seeking their release.
