Dubai: Iran said it had seized a British oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz on Friday but denied Washington’s assertion that the US Navy had downed one of its drones, as tensions in the Gulf region grew again.
Britain said it was urgently seeking information about the Stena Impero tanker, which had been heading to a port in Saudi Arabia and suddenly changed course after passing through the strait at the mouth of the Gulf.
The tanker’s operator, Stena Bulk, said in a statement the ship was no longer under the crew’s control and could not be contacted.
Iran’s state news agency IRNA quoted a military source as saying the vessel had turned off its tracker, ignored warnings from the Revolutionary Guards and was sailing in the wrong direction in a shipping lane.
“The rule of retaliation is something that’s recognised within international law and is used in relation to wrong measures taken by a government,” Iranian Guardian Council spokesman Abbasali Kadkhodaei told IRNA.
British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt called the capture “unacceptable” and said he would be attending an emergency meeting of top officials to discuss the crisis.
“We will respond in a way that is considered but robust and we are absolutely clear that if this situation is not resolved quickly there will be serious consequences,” Hunt said.
Read the article by Parisa Hafezi and Steve Holland in the Brisbane Times.