TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s seizure of a British-flagged oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz was a “legal measure,” the spokesman for the Islamic Republic’s government says today.
“Seizing the British tanker was a legal measure by Iran. Iran confronted the ship (to ensure) the region’s security,” Ali Rabiei tells a news conference in Tehran.
Iran impounded the Stena Impero tanker on Friday on allegations it failed to respond to distress calls and turned off its transponder after hitting a fishing boat.
It has faced mounting calls to release the vessel and its crew — 18 Indians, three Russians, a Latvian and a Filipino.
“To all the countries that are calling on Iran to release the tanker, we ask them to tell Britain the same thing,” Rabiei says, referring to the seizure by the British authorities of an Iranian tanker in the Mediterranean on July 4.
— AFP
A picture taken on July 21, 2019, shows an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp ship patrolling around the British-flagged tanker Stena Impero as it’s anchored off the Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas. (Hasan Shirvani/Mizan News Agency/AFP)
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