Requests For Assistance To Detain Iranian Oil Tanker Were 'Not Seen' By Former Defence Secretary

The former Defence Secretary has said she did not see the formal request for assistance made by Gibraltar to the Foreign Office before Royal Marines seized an Iranian oil tanker in July.

The Adrian Darya 1, previously known as the Grace 1, was seized by Royal Marines after it was believed to be breaching EU sanctions whilst on its way to Syria.

The ship was carrying 2 million barrels of crude oil to the Banias Refinery in Syria.

Penny Mordaunt appeared before the Defence Select Committee and told MPs she was involved only on an operational basis. She also said she asked five times for a COBRA meeting on the state of play in the region before getting one.

John Spellar MP for Warley, asked Ms Mordaunt: "When did the government of Gibraltar, as far as you can recall, send its request for assistance for the Royal Marines in detaining the Grace 1 oil tanker?".

Ms Mordaunt replied:

"I would not know that. My involvement in this has been poorly on an operational basis.

"I can tell you that we received on June 28 a request for support on that."

Mr Spellar then fired a few more questions at Ms Mordaunt: "So from what you're saying, did that request go to the Foreign Office?"

Ms Mordaunt replied: "It was from the Foreign Office."

Mr Spellar continued: "But one presumes, therefore, correct me if I'm wrong, that the Foreign Office would have been acting on a request from the government of Gibraltar?".

Ms Mordaunt said: "You would have to address the Foreign Office, I wouldn't be able to address that I'm afraid."

The comments came shortly after the former First Sea Lord, Lord West told MPs the British reaction to seizing the Iranian tanker was "poor" and a "failure".

Speaking before the Defence Select Committee, Lord West said the retaliation by Iran of seizing the British Stena Impero could have been "predicted" and that he had warned many that it would happen.

"I mean it was hardly a surprise and I think the actions that we took were poor and we did not look after UK shipping," he said.

He continued: "Even with the "limited number of ships that we had there and they were too limited because we should have deployed earlier - we could have done something.

"I am, as you can probably see, quite angry about this because it was a failure."

Iranian officials have hinted that they may soon release the Stena Impero and its 23 crew members

On Tuesday, the Adrian Darya 1 turned off its tracking beacon with its last location said to be 83 kilometres off the coast of Lebanon and Syria.

The US attempted to block the release of the vessel and issued a warrant to seize it.