Iran warns UK against escalating tension, says crew safe

DUBAI, July 21 

Iran’s ambassador to Britain warned against escalating tension on Sunday as a UK official declined to rule out sanctions in response to Tehran’s seizure of a British-flagged oil tanker.

Britain has called Iran’s capture of the Stena Impero in the Strait of Hormuz on Friday a “hostile act”.

Britain needs to contain “those domestic political forces who want to escalate existing tension between Iran and the UK well beyond the issue of ships,” Iran’s envoy to Britain Hamid Baeidinejad said on Twitter.

“This is quite dangerous and unwise at a sensitive time in the region,” he said, adding that Iran “is firm and ready for different scenarios.”

Britain’s junior defence minister Tobias Ellwood did not rule out the possibility of targeting Tehran with sanctions in response.

“Our first and most important responsibility is to make sure that we get a solution to the issue to do with the current ship, make sure other British-flagged ships are safe to operate in these waters and then look at the wider picture,” Ellwood told Sky News.

Asked about the possibility of sanctions, he said: “We are going to be looking at a series of options ...We will be speaking with our colleagues, our international allies, to see what can actually be done.”

Tehran’s seizure of the Stena Impero followed the July 4 capture by Royal Marines of the Grace 1 tanker carrying Iranian oil near Gibraltar.

In a letter to the UN Security Council, Britain said the Stena Impero was approached by Iranian forces in Omani territorial waters where it was exercising its lawful right of passage, and that the action “constitutes illegal interference.” British warship HMS Montrose radioed an Iranian patrol vessel to warn it against boarding the Stena Impero, according to radio messages provided to Reuters by maritime security firm Dryad Global.

Iran said the seized tanker “risked maritime safety” in the Strait of Hormuz, through which almost a fifth of the world’s annual oil consumption passes.

He added that all 23 crew members aboard the ship are “safe and in good health in Bandar Abbas port”. — Reuters