BEIRUT—Iran demanded the immediate release of one of its tankers impounded with the help of British forces in Gibraltar this week, an incident that has angered Tehran and exacerbated tensions between Iran and Western countries.
The British ambassador to Iran was summoned to the country’s foreign ministry Thursday night shortly after British Royal Marines assisted in the detention of an oil tanker that was bound for Syria in suspected violation of European Union sanctions. Iran has supported Syrian President Bashar al-Assad through an eight-year war.
A senior Iranian Foreign Ministry official told British Ambassador Robert Macaire that the seizure of the tanker was “tantamount to maritime piracy.” The official “stressed that Britain has no right to impose its own unilateral sanctions or those of the European Union in an extraterritorial manner against the other countries,” according to the ministry’s website.
The U.K. Foreign Office didn’t comment on the meeting but in a statement Friday said it welcomed “This firm action by the Gibraltarian authorities, acting to enforce the EU Syria Sanctions regime.”
The European Union doesn’t have broad sanctions in place against Iran and isn’t known to have impounded an Iranian oil tanker before. But it has banned oil shipments to Syria.
Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Expediency Discernment Council, which advises the supreme leader, on Friday tweeted that Iran should seize a British tanker if the Iranian vessel isn’t released.
“The Islamic Revolution has never initiated any battles in its 40-year history but has also never hesitated in responding to bullies,” Mr. Rezaei added on Twitter.
A day earlier, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said the impounded tanker named Grace 1 was carrying fuel from Iran, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.
The unusual seizure of the Iranian vessel piles pressure on Tehran, which has tried to find ways to evade U.S. sanctions imposed with the aim of slashing the country’s oil exports to zero.
The incident in Gibraltar, a British overseas territory, adds to growing acrimony between Iran and the EU, as Tehran moves toward a second violation of the 2015 nuclear accord on Sunday when it has said it will surpass limits imposed by that agreement on its uranium enrichment. The U.S. pulled out of the deal last year and has imposed sanctions on the country since then.
European nations have worked to keep the pact alive, but tensions with Iran have risen, with Tehran saying Europe hasn’t done enough to offset U.S. economic pressure.
The tanker was impounded in Gibraltar, off the southern tip of Spain, after sailing south to take a long route around Africa.
As U.S. sanctions have bitten harder than the Iranian leadership expected, Tehran has taken a more confrontational approach, and in June shot down a U.S. surveillance drone. Washington also accuses Iran of attacking six oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman, a charge Iran denies.
In the wake of harsh sanctions by the Trump administration, Iran’s oil exports have fallen to around 230,000 barrels a day, mostly to China, according to a former Iran oil official.
The decline in oil sales has put a serious strain on Iran’s economy. Its budget is based on the assumption that Iran would be able to export 1.5 million barrels a day, already a stark drop from the 2.5 million barrels it exported a day this time last year.
—Benoit Faucon in London contributed to this article
Write to Sune Engel Rasmussen at sune.rasmussen@wsj.com
https://www.wsj.com/articles/iran-demands-return-of-tanker-held-in-gibraltar-11562337490
2019-07-05 14:38:00Z
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