Explosive Device Likely Damaged Greek Tanker off Libya Last Week, Operator Says

The Marshall Islands-flagged tanker Vilamoura had left the Libyan port of Zuetina on June 27 to head to Gibraltar (File Photo)
The Marshall Islands-flagged tanker Vilamoura had left the Libyan port of Zuetina on June 27 to head to Gibraltar (File Photo)
TT

Explosive Device Likely Damaged Greek Tanker off Libya Last Week, Operator Says

The Marshall Islands-flagged tanker Vilamoura had left the Libyan port of Zuetina on June 27 to head to Gibraltar (File Photo)
The Marshall Islands-flagged tanker Vilamoura had left the Libyan port of Zuetina on June 27 to head to Gibraltar (File Photo)

An external explosive device most likely caused the blast that damaged Greek oil tanker Vilamoura as it was sailing off the Libyan coast last week, the vessel's Greece-based operator TMS Tankers said on Sunday, citing an initial investigation.

The Marshall Islands-flagged tanker Vilamoura had left the Libyan port of Zuetina on June 27 to head to Gibraltar with some 1 million barrels of oil when there was an explosion in the engine room, Reuters reported.

"Preliminary investigation findings clearly indicate that the explosion, the resulting fracture of the side shell plating, and the flooding of the engine room were caused by an external source —an unidentified explosive device," TMS Tankers said.

Maritime security sources told Reuters last week that a limpet mine may have caused the blast on Vilamoura, the fifth such incident to hit commercial shipping in the region in recent months.

Following the explosion and the flooding of its engine room the vessel lost manoeuvrability, although it was able to be towed towards Greece.

The vessel has now arrived safely at Laconikos Bay in Greece and its crew are in good health, the operator added in a statement.



Iran Rejects Return to Negotiations Unless Other Side Ready for ‘Fair Deal’

A handout photo made available by the Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service shows Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi during his meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (not pictured) on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Foreign Ministers meeting in Tianjin, China, 15 July 2025.  EPA/RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY PRESS SERVICE / HANDOUT
A handout photo made available by the Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service shows Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi during his meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (not pictured) on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Foreign Ministers meeting in Tianjin, China, 15 July 2025. EPA/RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY PRESS SERVICE / HANDOUT
TT

Iran Rejects Return to Negotiations Unless Other Side Ready for ‘Fair Deal’

A handout photo made available by the Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service shows Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi during his meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (not pictured) on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Foreign Ministers meeting in Tianjin, China, 15 July 2025.  EPA/RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY PRESS SERVICE / HANDOUT
A handout photo made available by the Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service shows Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi during his meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (not pictured) on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Foreign Ministers meeting in Tianjin, China, 15 July 2025. EPA/RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY PRESS SERVICE / HANDOUT

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told his European counterparts Friday they have no grounds for reactivating UN sanctions after they threatened to do so in the coming months unless there is progress in nuclear talks.

“If EU/E3 (Germany, France and the UK) want to have a role, they should act responsibly and put aside the worn-out policies of threat and pressure, including the 'snapback' for which they [have] absolutely no moral [or] legal grounds,” Araghchi said on X.

On Friday, the Iranian FM had a joint teleconference with E3 foreign ministers and EU representatives for political affairs.

Araghchi said he told the EU and E3 officials that it was the US that withdrew from the two-year negotiated deal - coordinated by EU in 2015- not Iran.

“And it was US that left the negotiation table in June this year and chose a military option instead, not Iran,” he wrote on X.

“Any new round of talks is only possible when the other side is ready for a fair, balanced, and mutually beneficial nuclear deal,” the FM added.

In Tehran, calls have been growing to deter any move by the E3 aimed at activating the “snapback” mechanism that reimposes UN sanctions on Tehran under the nuclear deal.

France, Britain and Germany told Iran on Thursday that they would restore UN sanctions unless it reopened talks on its nuclear program immediately and produced concrete results by the end of August.

A French diplomatic source told Reuters that the ministers had urged Iran to resume diplomacy immediately to reach a “verifiable and lasting” deal, threatening to use the so-called 'snapback' mechanism if it failed to do so.

The three European countries, along with China and Russia, are the remaining parties to a 2015 deal - from which the US withdrew in 2018 - that lifted sanctions on Iran in return for restrictions on its nuclear program.

If Iran is found to be in violation of the terms, the “snapback” can be used to restore UN sanctions before the UN Security Council resolution enshrining the deal expires on October 18. The process would take about 30 days.

“The ministers also reiterated their determination to use the so-called 'snapback' mechanism in the absence of concrete progress toward such an agreement by the end of the summer,” the French diplomatic source said, without specifying what this would entail.

Since the airstrikes, inspectors from the UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, have left Iran. While Tehran has suggested it is open to diplomacy, there are no indications a sixth round of talks with Washington will resume soon.

Even if they do, diplomats say reaching a comprehensive accord before the end of August - the deadline the Europeans have given - seems unrealistic, especially without inspectors on the ground.

Two European diplomats said they hoped to coordinate strategy with Washington in the coming days with a view to restarting talks with Iran.