UK navy sought, failed to stop Iran

DUBAI — A British warship tried but failed to prevent Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from seizing a British tanker in the Strait of Hormuz last week, intercepted radio communications show, fueling a wave of recriminations in London on Sunday over who was to blame for the incident last week.

In recordings obtained by the shipping consultancy Dryad Global and posted Sunday on its website, a member of the Revolutionary Guard is heard ordering the British-flagged Stena Impero tanker to divert course toward Iran.

“Alter your course,” the man says. “If you obey you will be safe.”

A British naval officer interrupts, telling the Stena Impero that it has the right to proceed through the waterway.

“Under international law your passage must not be impeded, obstructed or hampered,” he says.

The British officer then addresses the Iranian: “Please confirm that you are not intending to violate international law by unlawfully attempting to board the MV Stena.”

He spoke from the British frigate HMS Montrose, one of two warships sent to the Persian Gulf to protect British shipping after Iran threatened to seize a British tanker in retaliation for Britain’s detention of an Iranian tanker in the Mediterranean earlier this month.

Neither Britain nor Iran challenged the authenticity of the recordings.

Iran says it detained the Stena Impero for unspecified “violations” of maritime law.

A former head of the Royal Navy said the tanker should have been better protected before it was intercepted on Friday.

In London, British Defense Minister Tobias Ellwood pushed the criticism aside. The priority now, Ellwood said, must be to “de-escalate tensions” with Tehran after Iranian forces.

The tanker’s seizure illustrates the challenge confronting the international community as it attempts to secure the safety of shipping in the Persian Gulf and the narrow Hormuz Strait that controls access to it. The United States has also sent naval reinforcements to the area and is trying to encourage other allies to join it in a coalition to protect commercial shipping.

Iran, meanwhile, appears to be relishing the world’s unease, releasing videos and photographs showing the Revolutionary Guard acting unimpeded in the open seas and flying its flag over a confiscated British vessel. Hours before the interception of the British tanker, Iranian media posted what they said was drone footage of the deck of the USS Boxer, one of the U.S. warships dispatched to secure the waterway.

A fifth of the world’s oil passes through the narrow, crowded strait.