In what appears to be a revenge action, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Friday they had confiscated a British tanker, Stena Impero, in the Strait of Hormuz for breaking “international maritime rules” as tensions mount in the highly sensitive waterway.
Britain however said Iran had seized two ships in the Gulf, incidents Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt condemned as “unacceptable”.
But the Iranian Revolutionary Guards quickly rebutted this, according to FARS News.
It said the UK-owned tanker, MV Mesdar, operating under Liberian flag was stopped by Iran’s naval patrols in the Strait of Hormuz on Friday evening after it started oil leaks in the waterway.
“The ship was sent back to the international waters to continue its voyage after a short time and after it was warned to show full respect for environmental regulations and harmless navigation.
“The latest reports said Mesdar has already left Iran’s territorial waters”, FARS News reported.
Britain had seized two weeks ago a super tanker owned by Iran on the premise that it was heading to Syria in violation of sanctions.
This sparked outrage in Tehran, with supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accusing London of “piracy” and vowing retaliation.
The retaliatory seizure came hours after Gibraltar’s Supreme Court said it would extend by 30 days the detention of the Iranian tanker.
The latest incident came as President Donald Trump insisted on Friday that the military had downed an Iranian drone that was threatening a US naval vessel in the Strait of Hormuz, despite denials from Tehran.
The Stena Impero tanker “was confiscated by the Revolutionary Guards at the request of Hormozgan Ports and Maritime Organisation when passing through the Strait of Hormuz, for failing to respect international maritime rules,” the Guards’ official website Sepahnews said.
The UK-flagged tanker “was led to the shore and handed over to the organisation to go through the legal procedure and required investigations,” it said.
Tanker tracking service Marine Traffic showed that the Swedish-owned Stena Impero last signalled its location near the Island of Larak in the highly sensitive waterway at 9:00 PM local time.
The Stena Impero’s Swedish owner said the ship was transiting the Strait of Hormuz and in “international waters” when it was “attacked by unidentified small crafts and a helicopter”.
“We are presently unable to contact the vessel which is now tracking as heading north towards Iran,” a statement said.
Hunt said he was “extremely concerned by the seizure of two naval vessels by Iranian authorities in the Strait of Hormuz” — through which nearly a third of the world’s oil is transported.
“These seizures are unacceptable,” said Hunt.
