A former chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on Friday threatened to seize a British tanker if the UK doesn’t launch the Iranian ship detained in Gibraltar on suspicion of carrying crude oil to Syria in violation of EU sanctions.
“If Britain does not release the Iranian oil tanker, it is the authorities duty to seize a British oil tanker,” tweeted Mohsen Rezaei, who’s now secretary of Iran’s Expediency Council, a strong state physique.
“Islamic Iran in its 40-year history has never initiated hostilities in any battles but has also never hesitated in responding to bullies,” Rezaei wrote.
The IRGC is the elite navy unit, which solutions solely to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that took responsibility for the downing of a US drone earlier this month.
Iran demanded earlier Friday that Britain instantly launch the oil tanker, accusing it of appearing on the bidding of the United States.
A senior international ministry official “described the UK transfer as unacceptable” in a gathering with British ambassador Rob Macaire, who had been summoned to hear a proper protest, the ministry stated in a assertion.
He “referred to as for the quick launch of the oil tanker, on condition that it has been seized on the request of the US, primarily based on the data at the moment accessible,” the assertion added.