London | Authorities in Gibraltar on Thursday (Friday AEST) released an Iranian oil tanker they impounded six weeks ago, defying a United States request hours earlier to seize the ship. They also released the ship's crew from detention.

Iran gave no immediate signal on whether it would soon release a British tanker that it had seized in retaliation, but Iranian officials have previously hinted at the possibility of such a trade. An oil trader in Iran who had been briefed on the dispute said the British ship would be released once the Iranian tanker had reached Greece.