On Monday, Iran said the British oil tanker Stena Impero was free to leave after two months of detention.

Iranian government spokesman Ali Rabiyee was quoted in FARS, Iran's semiofficial news agency, as saying the Iranian government had decided to condone the vessel's violation of maritime regulations.

According to Rabiyee, the ship would be allowed to leave the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas, in southern Iran, after the completion of legal proceedings.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps seized the ship July 19 and accused it of violating maritime rules and regulations in the Strait of Hormuz, FARS reported at the time. The ship's seizure followed the British detention of an Iranian tanker at Gibraltar. The British released the tanker in mid-August.

The Stena Impero is British-flagged, but the majority of its 23-member crew are Indian nationals, according to FARS. The rest of the crew are from Russia, Latvia and the Philippines.

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Tensions have escalated between the United States and Iran after an attack on oil facilities Sept. 14 in Saudi Arabia, though the tanker's release may signal an Iranian de-escalation.

It is still unclear what degree of negotiation might take place between the United States and Iran after the start of the United Nations General Assembly this week.

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, announced Sept. 17 that "there will be no talks with the U.S. at any level." President Donald Trump said before departing Sunday morning for Texas that he had no plans to meet Iranian President Hassan Rouhani at the United Nations, but “nothing is ever off the table.”

Contributing: Michael Collins, Deirdre Shesgreen