Sri Lanka says US sanctions are global, not aimed at stranded Iranian tankers

Sri Lanka on Saturday said the US secondary sanctions announced in August were part of a global policy and were not aimed specifically at the island nation. The clarification came after media reports said Washington had warned Colombo against allowing local companies to provide services to Iranian tankers stranded off Sri Lanka's coast.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Thushara Rodrigo said, "The US has issued secondary sanctions as their own common policy perspective which is applying globally and do not target only Sri Lanka or any specific country." He said the US measures announced on August 24 stated that individuals or entities providing services to US-sanctioned vessels could risk losing access to the US financial system.

Rodrigo's remarks followed a Wall Street Journal report on Wednesday that said around 20 empty Iranian oil tankers were stranded about 24 kilometres off Sri Lanka's south-western coast, with some facing shortages of food, fuel and fresh water. The report said US officials had in recent weeks pressed Sri Lanka to stop local companies from servicing the tankers.

According to the report, the US Embassy in Colombo had informed the Sri Lankan government in August that it was tracking 19 Iranian tankers off the country's western coast. It had also warned that companies servicing sanctioned vessels could face US secondary sanctions.

Sri Lankan authorities have earlier said the Iranian tankers were outside the country's territorial waters and that Colombo was monitoring them. Sri Lanka's territorial waters extend 12 nautical miles, or around 22 kilometres, from its coast.

The US Embassy in Colombo had earlier held a three-day training programme for more than 40 Sri Lankan officials on detecting and responding to maritime sanctions evasion. The training, held from September 9 to 11, covered methods used to hide illicit maritime activity, including manipulation of vessel identification and other deceptive practices. The embassy had said the programme was meant to strengthen Sri Lanka's ability to detect and respond to maritime sanctions evasion that threatens US security interests and legitimate global commerce.

The Wall Street Journal report said the tankers were part of a wider group of Iranian or Iran-linked vessels involved in transporting sanctioned Iranian crude to Asian markets, particularly China. It said the US pressure campaign and renewed blockade of the Strait of Hormuz had disrupted their movement, leaving some vessels stranded in Asian waters. The vessels had earlier carried Iranian crude to international waters near Malaysia, where the oil was transferred to other tankers before being taken to Chinese refineries, the report said.

The report also said Sri Lankan shipping companies had faced difficulty in securing approval to provide food, fuel, fresh water and other services to the vessels because of concerns over possible US sanctions. Sri Lanka's latest response underlined that the US measures were part of a broader global policy even as the stranded tankers remained under watch.