Iran says it has seized a British oil tanker
British-flagged vessel seized in latest escalation
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps seized a British tanker in the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, according to Iranian state media, setting up a new showdown with the West and demonstrating Tehran’s growing boldness as it seeks to challenge the United States and its allies in the strategic waterway.
A Revolutionary Guard statement read on Iranian state television said the British-flagged Stena Impero tanker had been seized in the Persian Gulf, but gave no further details.
U.S. and British officials indicated that a second tanker, the Mesdar, flagged in Liberia but operated by a British company, had also been seized. However, an Iranian news agency said the Mesdar had not been seized but had been issued a warning, while the Iranian military confirmed it had captured the Stena Impero.
Both tankers were seen sharply changing course and heading toward Iran as they travelled through the strategic Strait of Hormuz on Friday, according to shipping tracking service Marinetraffic.com. By early Saturday morning, the Mesdar had changed course again and appeared to have resumed its scheduled journey toward the Saudi port of Ras Tanura.
The Strait of Hormuz is the narrow waterway that controls access to the Persian Gulf, through which a fifth of the world’s oil is moved.
The British government said it was “urgently” seeking further information about both tankers.
Northern Marine, a subsidiary of the Stena Impero’s Swedish owner Stena AB, said a “hostile action” had preceded the vessel’s change of course.
The company issued a statement saying it had been “approached by unidentified small craft and a helicopter during transit of the Strait of Hormuz while the vessel was in international waters.”
The ship diverted on a course north toward Iran and then contact was lost, the company said.
Britain’s Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, said he was “extremely concerned” by the possible seizures and would be holding an urgent meeting of top members of the government late Friday to discuss Britain’s response.
A British source said: “It does look like it has been hijacked. Ships don’t follow that pattern. It turned right and straight into Iranian waters. It is really concerning that this has happened.
“It looks on the face of it as though the Iranian Revolutionary Guard have boarded and taken a U.k.-flagged ship. It appears to be linked to events around the Grace 1 tanker.”
British authorities seized the Iranian Grace 1 supertanker off the coast of Gibraltar on July 4, on suspicion it was carrying crude to Syria in violation of European Union sanctions.
When asked about the latest incidents, U.S. President Donald Trump said: “let’s see what happens.”
The latest seizure marks a wider escalation by Iran in its two-month-old campaign of threats and attacks against U.S. and allied warships and commercial shipping in the vicinity of the Persian Gulf, as Iran seeks to push back against the Trump administration’s imposition of tough new sanctions. Iran has denied U.S. allegations that it is behind most of the attacks.
The new tensions coincide with the arrival in the region of U.S. naval reinforcements aimed at deterring just such attacks against international shipping. Among the U.S. warships that have arrived in the region is the USS Boxer, which brought down an Iranian drone Thursday that had approached dangerously near, according to Trump and the Pentagon.
on Friday, Iranian television aired footage showing drone images of warships that the broadcaster said disproved Trump’s assertion that the U.S. military had destroyed an Iranian drone.
The television station said the footage was provided by the Revolutionary Guard and showed the USS Boxer entering the Strait of Hormuz. The video was also posted by Iran’s Press Tv and included images taken from above what appeared to be a warship, but the veracity of the footage could not be verified.
This latest spike in tensions came almost exactly a month after Iran downed a U.S. drone over the same waterway, prompting Trump to consider launching a military strike against Iran.
Trump said Thursday that the USS Boxer destroyed the drone after it approached the amphibious assault ship. The Pentagon said the drone was brought down around 10 a.m. Thursday. Iran denied that any encounter occurred.