Iran threatens to retaliate after British forces seized oil tanker
A senior official in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Friday that it would be the Islamic Republic’s “duty” to seize a British oil tanker in retaliation for the capture of an Iranian ship in Gibraltar by the Royal Marines.
The British forces seized the supertanker Grace 1 on Thursday for trying to take oil to Syria in violation of EU sanctions, according to the UK’s Telegraph.
“If Britain does not release the Iranian oil tanker, it is the (Iranian) authorities duty to seize a British oil tanker,” Maj. Gen. Mohsen Rezai said in a tweet.
The Iranian foreign ministry also demanded that Britain immediately release the tanker, accusing it of acting at Washington’s bidding.
A senior ministry official “described the UK move as unacceptable” in a meeting with British Ambassador Rob Macaire, the ministry said in a statement Friday.
He “called for the immediate release of the oil tanker, given that it has been seized at the request of the US, based on the information currently available,” the statement said.
National security adviser John Bolton applauded the ship’s interception.
“Excellent news: UK has detained the supertanker Grace I laden with Iranian oil bound for Syria in violation of EU sanctions,” he said in a tweet.
The comments by Rezaei comes amid heightened tensions over Iran’s unraveling of the 2015 nuclear deal, from which the US withdrew last year.
Iran has announced that it had breached a stockpile limit for low-enriched uranium that had been permitted under the accord. The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed that Iran’s stockpile had exceeded the 300-kilo limit.
And President Hassan Rouhani also said the country plans to boost its enrichment starting Sunday.
Rezaei — who also is secretary of Iran’s powerful Expediency Discernment Council — led the Guard during Iran’s 1980s “Tanker War” in the Persian Gulf targeting the oil trade of the United States and its Arab allies.
The Grace 1 was stopped early Thursday by police and customs agencies with the assistance by a detachment of Royal Marines who landed a chopper on the ship about 2.5 miles south of Gibraltar, a British territory on Spain’s southern tip at the entrance to the Mediterranean.
“We have reason to believe that the Grace 1 was carrying its shipment of crude oil to the Banyas refinery in Syria,” Gibraltar’s Chief Minister Fabian Picardo said in a statement.
“That refinery is the property of an entity that is subject to European Union sanctions against Syria,” he added.
Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell said the vessel was detained at the request of the US.
Britain’s Foreign Office said in a statement that “we welcome this firm action by the Gibraltarian authorities, acting to enforce the EU Syria Sanctions regime.”
With Post Wires
Source: Read Full Article