Video released Monday shows Iranian Revolutionary Guard forces warning a British warship not to interfere as they seized a UK-flagged oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz earlier this month, New York Post reported.
The video, released on Iranian state media, shows Iranian commandos rappelling onto the deck of the Stena Impero on July 19 in the critical commercial shipping waterway. “You are required not to interfere in these issues,” a Revolutionary Guard representative tells the warship.
“This is British warship Foxtrot 2 3 6. I am in the vicinity of an internationally recognized strait with a merchant vessel in my vicinity conducting transit passage,” a British voice replies.
“Don’t put your life in danger,” the Iranian responds.
Iran’s seizure of the Stena Impero came two weeks after British forces captured an Iranian tanker in the waters off Gibraltar that they accused of illegally transporting oil to Syria. Britain on Monday demanded that Tehran release its tanker, New York Post adds.
“If the Iranians want to come out of the dark and be accepted as a responsible member of the intentional community, they need to adhere to rules-based system of the international community,” Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told Sky News.
“You cannot go about detaining unlawfully foreign vessels,” he continued.
Iran has been pressuring European countries to help it ease economic sanctions that President Trump imposed on the Islamic Republic after he last year withdrew the U.S. from the 2015 nuclear deal.
Britain has sent a second ship, the HMS Duncan, to the region to join with HMS Montrose to escort British-flagged commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz.
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