Iran Press/Europe: Iran's seizure of a British-flagged tanker in the Strait of Hormuz "constitutes illegal interference", the UK has said in a letter to the United Nations Security Council. The Stena Impero was in Omani territorial waters and was allegedly claimed as "exercising the lawful right of transit passage in an international strait", Britain's UN mission wrote in the letter, reported Iran Press citing Sky news.
A copy of the letter has also been sent to UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres.
However, on the same day, Britain's Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn blamed US president Donald Trump for ‘fuelling confrontation’ with Iran after a UK oil tanker was impounded.
Earlier on July 20, Iran's foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and his British counterpart Jeremy Hunt discussed how the release of Iranian and British oil tankers might come about in a phone call on Saturday afternoon.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC), Brigadier General Ramezan confirmed the seized British tanker tried to enter the Strait of Hormuz with its communications transponders switched off -- contrary to maritime rules and regulations.
He said on Saturday that there was a real danger the oil tanker might have collided with ships and tankers moving in the opposite direction. The oil tanker was trying to enter the Strait of Hormuz in waters normally used by commercial ships and tankers exiting the Strait, posing a significant risk of a collision with a commercial ship travelling in the opposite direction, Sharif noted.
According to the IRGC spokesman, Iran had no choice but to impound the tanker, for safety reasons, and also because the oil tanker failed to respond to repeated warnings and messages sent to it by the IRGC navy.
On Sunday, a group of parliamentarians in the Majlis (Iranian parliament) have expressed their gratitude to the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) for the seizing of a British oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) impounded the British oil tanker Stena Impero on Friday when it was passing through the Strait of Hormuz en route to Saudi Arabia "for failing to respect international maritime rules.”
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