Iran calls the seizure of a British oil tanker retribution.

British official calls tanker interception ‘utterly unacceptable’

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s seizure of a British oil tanker was a response to Britain’s role in impounding an Iranian supertanker, senior officials said Saturday, as newly released video showed Iranian commandos rappelling from a helicopter onto the vessel in the Strait of Hormuz.

The seizure prompted condemnation from the U.K. and its European allies as they continue to call for a de-escalation of tensions in the critical waterway.

U.K. Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said Britain’s response “will be considered but robust.”

In comments on Twitter on Saturday, he said he spoke with Iran’s foreign minister and expressed extreme disappointment that the Iranian diplomat had assured him Iran wanted to de-escalate the situation but “they have behaved in the opposite way.”

Speaking to reporters later in the day after an emergency government meeting, Hunt said the “totally and utterly unacceptable” interception of the British-flagged Stena Impero “raises very serious questions about the security of British shipping and indeed international shipping” in the Strait of Hormuz.

One-fifth of all global crude exports passes through the waterway from Mideast exporters to countries around the world. The narrow waterway sits between Iran and Oman.

The Stena Impero was intercepted late Friday by Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard forces. The ship’s owner, Stena Bulk, said the vessel was stopped by “unidentified small crafts and a helicopter” during its transit through the Strait of Hormuz. The vessel was seized with a crew of 23 crew aboard, though none are British nationals.

In a dramatic video released by the Revolutionary Guard, several small Guard boats can be seen surrounding the larger tanker as it moves through the strait. Above, a military helicopter hovers and then several men wearing black masks begin to rappel onto the ship.

Hunt said the ship’s seizure shows worrying signs Iran may be choosing a dangerous and destabilizing path. He also defended the British-assisted seizure of Iran’s supertanker two weeks ago as a “legal” move because the vessel was suspected of breaching European Union sanctions on oil shipments to Syria.

Iranian officials “see this as a titfor-tat situation, following Grace 1 being detained in Gibraltar. Nothing could be further from the truth,” Hunt said later Saturday.

In comments on Twitter on Saturday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif characterized the seizure of the Iranian tanker July 4 as “piracy.”

Jeremy Hunt