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News > Iran

Iran Seizes British Oil Tanker in Persian Gulf Waters

  • UK tanker Stena Impero was violating international regulations in Strait of Hormuz, according to Iranian authorithies.

    UK tanker Stena Impero was violating international regulations in Strait of Hormuz, according to Iranian authorithies. | Photo: Press TV

Published 19 July 2019
Opinion

"We are urgently seeking further information and assessing the situation following reports of an incident in the Gulf."

Iran has seized a British oil tanker that was sailing through the Persian Gulf waters en route to Saudi Arabia this evening, the Islamic Revoutionary Guard Corps announced.

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Britain said it was urgently seeking further information after a British-flagged tanker took a sudden turn into Iranian waters.

Relations between Iran and the West have been increasingly strained after Britain seized an Iranian tanker in Gibraltar on suspicion of smuggling oil to Syria in breach of European Union sanctions.

"We are urgently seeking further information and assessing the situation following reports of an incident in the Gulf," a spokesman for Britain's Ministry of Defence said on Friday.

The political editor of the Sunday Times said on Twitter that a meeting of the government's emergency committee was taking place to investigate what had happened.

Prime Minister Theresa May's office declined to comment.

Refinitiv data showed the Stena Impero is a British-flagged vessel owned by Stena Bulk. Refinitiv data on its movements showed it had been en route to Jubail in Saudi Arabia.

Another map tracking the location of the Stena Impero showed it making a sharp turn in the Strait of Hormuz, at the southern entrance to the Gulf, and heading toward Iranian waters.

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