Iran claims UK sent mediator to ‘beg’ for release of seized oil tanker

The chief-of-staff of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says Britain had sent a mediator to Iran over the seizure of a British-flagged tanker by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard forces last week.

Mohammad Mohammadi Golpaygani didn’t elaborate on who the mediator was but hailed the Guard’s seizure as humbling for Britain, which was now “forced to send mediators to beg Iran to release the vessel.”

His remarks were reported by the semi-official Tasnim news agency earlier this afternoon. The UK didn’t immediately comment on the claim.

There has been speculation that Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi, who visited Iran on Monday, may have acted as an intermediary in the tanker crisis.

Iranian officials say the seizure of the British-flagged Stena Impero was a response to Britain’s role in impounding an Iranian supertanker two weeks earlier off the coast of Gibraltar. That vessel was suspected of breaching EU sanctions on oil shipments to Syria.

— AP