THE destination of an Iranian oil tanker pursued by the US remains unclear after the ship listed its destination as Turkey but Ankara said it was heading to Lebanon.

The flurry of contradictory statements further muddies the waters for the Adrian Darya 1, formerly known as the Grace 1, and obscures where its 2.1 million barrels of oil will ultimately go.

Darya 1 has taken centre stage recently amid a crisis roiling the Persian Gulf and escalating tensions between Washington and Tehran after US president Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers over a year ago.

The vessel’s detention and later release by Gibraltar has fuelled the growing tensions.

The tanker changed its listed destination in its Automatic Identification System (AIS) to Iskenderun, Turkey.