Iran seizes British tanker

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Iran denies Trump claim US downed drone

GENEVA/LONDON, July 20, (Agencies): Iran said on Saturday it had seized a British-flagged oil tanker because it was involved in an accident, an explanation Britain rejected, calling the move a “hostile act”.

The action by Iranian Revolutionary Guards in the global oil trade’s most important waterway came two weeks after Britain seized an Iranian tanker accused of violating sanctions on Syria. It is certain to be viewed in the West as a military escalation after three months of confrontation which has already taken Iran and the United States to the brink of war. Iran’s Fars news agency said elite Revolutionary Guards had taken control of the Stena Impero in the Strait of Hormuz on Friday after it collided with an Iranian fishing boat whose distress call it ignored.

The vessel, carrying no cargo, was taken to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas. It would remain there with its 23 crew – 18 of them Indians – while the accident was investigated, Iranian news agencies quoted the head of Ports and Maritime Organisation in southern Hormozgan province, Allahmorad Afifipour, as saying. Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency posted a video of the ship anchored at sea, its name clearly visible.

The strait, between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula, is the sole outlet for exports of the vast majority of Middle Eastern oil, and the seizure sent oil prices sharply higher. The United States, which tightened sanctions against Iran in May with the aim of halting its oil exports altogether, has been warning for months of an Iranian threat to shipping in the strait. In London, British Defence Secretary Penny Mordaunt called the incident a “hostile act”.

The Foreign Office summoned Iran’s Charge d’Affaires for an urgent meeting. France and Germany joined Britain in condemning the seizure. The three big European countries are signatories to a 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers that Washington undermined by quitting last year, setting Iran’s already fragile relations with the West on a downward spiral. “We have learned with great concern of the seizure of a British vessel by Iranian forces,” France’s foreign ministry said. “We strongly condemn it and express our full solidarity with the United Kingdom.”

A German foreign ministry spokesman said further escalation of regional tensions “would be very dangerous (and) … undermine all ongoing efforts to find a way out of the current crisis.” US President Donald Trump said on Friday he would talk to Britain about the seizure. Iran on Friday denied Trump’s claim that a US warship destroyed an Iranian drone near the Persian Gulf in another escalation of tensions between the two countries less than a month after Trump nearly launched an airstrike.

The Iranian military said all its drones had returned safely to their bases and denied there was any confrontation with a US vessel the previous day. The country’s elite Revolutionary Guard later released video it claimed proves the US warship didn’t destroy one of its drones. “We have not lost any drone in the Strait of Hormuz nor anywhere else,” tweeted Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. The strategically vital strait is at the mouth of the Persian Gulf and serves as the passageway for one-fifth of all global crude exports, and oil prices ticked upward Friday on the news. Trump on Thursday said the USS Boxer took action after an Iranian drone closed to within 1,000 yards of the warship and ignored commands to stay away. The president accused Iran of “provocative and hostile” action and said the US acted in self-defense.

Neither Trump nor the Pentagon spelled out how the Boxer destroyed the drone. CNN reported that the ship used electronic jamming to bring it down rather than hitting it with a missile.

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