Iran says it seized British tanker, denies U.S. brought down drone

DUBAI/WASHINGTON, (Reuters) - Iran said it had seized a British oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz yesterday but denied Washington’s assertion that the U.S. Navy had downed an Iranian drone nearby this week, as tensions in the Gulf region rose again.

Britain said it was urgently seeking information about the Stena Impero tanker, which had been heading to a port in Saudi Arabia and suddenly changed course after passing through the strait at the mouth of the Gulf.

The tanker’s operator, Stena Bulk, said in a statement the ship was no longer under the crew’s control and could not be contacted.

Iran’s state news agency IRNA quoted a military source as saying the vessel had turned off its tracker, ignored warnings from the Revolutionary Guards and was sailing in the wrong direction in a shipping lane.

“We will respond in a way that is considered but robust and we are absolutely clear that if this situation is not resolved quickly there will be serious consequences,” British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt told reporters.

Hunt said Britain was “not looking at military options, we are looking at a diplomatic way to resolve the situation.”

Stena Bulk said the ship was “in full compliance with all navigation and international regulations.”

“There are 23 seafarers onboard of Indian, Russian, Latvian and Filipino nationality,” said Erik Hanell, president and chief executive of Stena Bulk. He said there had been no reported injuries.

The Revolutionary Guards did not capture a second tanker - the Britishoperated, Liberian-flagged ship Mesdar - in the Gulf, Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim news agency reported, quoting regional military sources.

The Mesdar had turned sharply north toward Iran’s coast yesterday afternoon but then changed course again and headed westward away from Iran, according to Refinitiv tracking data.

Relations between Washington and Tehran worsened last year when U.S. President Donald Trump abandoned a 2015 nuclear deal between world powers and Iran. Under the pact, Iran agreed to restrict nuclear work, long seen by the West as a cover for developing atomic bombs, in return for lifting sanctions. But sanctions have been imposed again, badly hurting Iran’s economy.