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Oman confirms will receive seized Russian tanker

MUSCAT: Oman said on Saturday it had agreed to allow a Russian tanker seized by the U.S. Navy in the Gulf to dock at one of its ports, according to the official Oman News Agency.

ONA quoted a foreign ministry official as saying that the decision to receive the tanker, which is suspected of smuggling oil out of sanctions-hit Iraq, was taken after contacts between the government of Oman and the Russian and U.S. governments. The official also said that an agreement had been reached on the measures to unload the tanker's shipment in Oman, the agency said without elaborating. Officials at the Russian embassy in Muscat confirmed the report.

"The tanker will arrive at one of the Omani ports any time. It is now in international waters," he told Reuters.

A U.S. State Department spokesman said on Friday that Oman had agreed to take the tanker, which the U.S. Navy patrolling the Gulf seized on Wednesday on suspicion of smuggling Iraqi oil in defiance of U.N sanctions.-Reuters