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

  • 01:38 20 July 2019

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

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Friday they have captured a British oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz while Tehran and Washington disagreed about a U.S. assertion that its Navy had downed an Iranian drone nearby, further increasing tensions in the Gulf region, ONA reports quoting Reuters.

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 Revolutionary Guards seized the vessel at the request of the maritime authorities in the Iranian province of Hormozgan for “not following international maritime regulations,” state television cited an IRGC statement as saying.

A second oil tanker, the British-operated, Liberian-flagged Mesdar, turned sharply north toward Iran’s coast on Friday afternoon after passing westward through the Strait of Hormuz into the Gulf, according to Refinitiv tracking data.

Faig Mahmudov

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