WHITFIELD: The U.S. says a previously seized Iranian oil tanker is now off the coast of Syria. The ship was detained by Britain back in July and was thought to be carrying oil to Syria in violation of various sanctions. Iran denied the accusations and the ship was eventually released.</s>WHITFIELD: But just a few hours ago, national security adviser John Bolton tweeted this satellite image. He says it is the same ship and claims it places the tanker two nautical miles from a naval base in Syria. Ben Wedeman is joining me right now. So Ben -- do we expect the U.S. or anyone else to take any action against that ship?</s>BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, at this point, Fred, the U.S. has actually tried to take actions on a variety of occasions. Before the ship was released by Gibraltar on the 15th of August, the United States asked authorities there to impound the ship. They did not. And then as it was heading toward the eastern Mediterranean, Brian Hook, the U.S. special representative for Iran actually e-mailed the captain of the ship offering him millions of dollars to divert the ship to a port nearby where the U.S. might be able to impound it. But nobody responded to that e-mail. On Friday the United States Treasury Department blacklisted the ship. So as far as we know from Mr. Bolton's tweet, it is two nautical miles off the Syrian coast but there's no indication if they're going to taking any further action against this ship which might at this point actually be offloading its cargo of 2.1 million barrels of Iranian crude oil -- Fred.</s>WHITFIELD: All right. Ben Wedeman -- thank you so much. All right. Families are separated and have no idea whether their loved ones are alive or dead. CNN's special coverage of the humanitarian crisis in the Bahamas caused by Hurricane Dorian next.
Iranian Oil Tanker Now Off the Coast Syria.