“What you’ve heard, that they want to send a European fleet to the Persian Gulf, sends a hostile message, is provocative and will increase tensions,” Iranian government spokesman Ali Rabiei said, according to the semi-official Fars news agency. London has called for a European-led naval mission to ensure safe shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, used by tankers carrying around a fifth of the world’s oil, after Iran’s seizure of a British-flagged ship nearly two weeks ago in what London has decried as an act of “state piracy”. The incident took place shortly after British forces captured an Iranian oil tanker, Grace 1, near Gibraltar, accusing it of violating sanctions on Syria. 

Iran has said that it did not capture the British vessel, Stena Impero, in retaliation for the Grace 1 seizure. 

Tehran has also stressed in recent weeks that foreign powers should leave securing shipping lanes to Iran and others in the region. Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Iraq export most of their crude oil via the Strait. 

Tensions between London and Tehran flared on Monday after Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab urged Iran to release Stena Impero and act as a “responsible member of the international community”.

“If the Iranians want to come out of the dark and be accepted as a responsible member of the international community they need to adhere to the rules-based system of the international community,” Mr Rabb told Sky News. 

“You cannot go about unlawfully detaining foreign vessels,” he added. 

In a separate interview on Monday, with BBC radio, Mr Rabb said that the two ship captures were not comparable. 

He said: “Grace 1 was intercepted because it was in breach of sanctions and heading with oil for Syria and that was the intelligence. We were absolutely lawfully entitled to detain it in the way we did.” 

Stena Impero, however, was “unlawfully detained,” he insisted: “This is not about some kind of barter. This is about international law and the rules of the international legal system being upheld and this is what we will insist on.” 

Mr Raab added that the proposed European task force would need to have the support of the US, the world’s top military power, in order to be “viable and effective”. 

The initiative has already won initial support from Denmark, France and Italy.  

Any future coalition would patrol waters, lead surveillance efforts and escort commercial ships and coordinate with naval vessels in the area. 

Tehran has accused Britain and the EU of failing to protect it from the consequences of Washington’s withdrawal from the nuclear pact between Iran and world powers. 

Under the 2015 deal, international sanctions on Iran were lifted in exchange for Tehran curbing its nuclear programme. 

But the pact has been at risk of collapse since US President Donald Trump, above, quit the deal last year and swiftly banned all international sales of Iranian oil, starving Tehran of its main source of income and crippling its economy. 

The Trump administration says it wants to negotiate a new broader deal with Tehran that would also encompass its ballistic missile programme and seek to curb its hegemonic ambitions. Iran has rejected calls for a new deal. 

Tehran’s main demand is to be allowed to sell its oil at the levels that prevailed before Washington left the deal and restored sanctions. 

Source: Read Full Article