“Iran’s arguments on the situation around the British Stena Impero tanker look more convincing than those of the Gibraltar authorities and the United Kingdom when they detained a tanker with Iranian oil in the Strait of Gibraltar,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on Sunday.
"Iran’s arguments are much more right than those of Gibraltar and London who are indulging in piracy,” Ryabkov said, adding that “Iran is taking care of the ecology in the Strait of Hormuz.”
On July 19, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy captured British oil tanker Stena Impero for violating international maritime laws when crossing the high-traffic Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf.
Iranian officials say the vessel had switched off its GPS locator, in contravention of international regulations, and was sailing into the strategic waterway in a wrong traffic pattern.
The tanker was transferred to the port of Iran’s southern city of Bandar Abbas for maritime casualty investigation.
The incident came almost one month after London seized an Iranian supertanker for allegedly violating unilateral European Union sanctions on Syria.
UK Prime Minister Theresa May is to hold a meeting of Britain's emergencies committee on Monday to discuss Iran's seizure of Stena Impero in the Persian Gulf.
It will be the third emergency committee meeting held in the UK since Iran seized the Stena Impero tanker on Friday.
MNA/TASS
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