‘Do not put your life in danger’: Iran releases new recording of Revolutionary Guards warning off British warship during seizure of oil tanker in the Gulf

• Iran published footage purporting to show commandos warning British warship
• Clips shows Revolutionary Guards telling British not to put their ‘life in danger’
• British warship ordered ‘do not to interfere in my operation’ by Iranian officer
• New recording released by Iran comes as second British warship arrives in Gulf

Iran published footage today purportedly showing Revolutionary Guards warning off a British warship during the seizure of a British-flagged oil tanker.  

Iranian forces warned the British warship’s crew against putting their ‘life in danger’ during the seizure of the vessel this month, a new recording of the incident revealed.  

Commandos captured the Stena Impero in the world’s most important waterway for oil shipments near the Strait of Hormuz on July 19.

The capture came two weeks after British forces seized an Iranian oil tanker near Gibraltar, accused of violating sanctions on Syria.

The video, published by the semi-official Tasnim news agency, contains footage of the capture of the tanker, showing Guards abseiling onto the deck from a helicopter, with the audio recording superimposed.

It comes as new Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said Iran must follow international rules and release the oil tanker. 

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards published a purported exchange with a British warship during the seizure of a British tanker

The new recording seems to show the HMS Montrose being warned off during the seizure of the Stena Impero

President Hassan Rouhani called for great diplomatic ties in an open letter Boris Jonson. 

In the new clip the Guards’ navy representative said: ‘You are required not to interfere in these issues.’

A voice with a British accent replied: ‘This is British warship Foxtrot 236. I am in the vicinity of an internationally recognised strait with a merchant vessel in my vicinity conducting transit passage.’

‘Don’t put your life in danger,’ the Guards navy representative warned.

Press TV, Iran’s state-run English language news channel, identified the British warship mentioned in the exchange as the HMS Montrose.  

‘This is British warship Foxtrot 236, go ahead,’ a British naval officer can be heard saying.

His Iranian counterpart responds by saying: ‘British warship Foxtrot 236, this is Sepah navy warship… your tanker British Heritage is under my control. You are ordered do not to interfere in my operation.’

Iranian state television also released recordings of another incident on July 10. 

The new footage claims Iranian officers warned the British ‘don’t put your life in danger’ during the seizure of the Stena Impero

The Stena Impero was boarded by Iranian commandos who took the vessel to the nearby port city of Bandar Abbas

Audio exchange between British warship and Iranian commandos

The first exchange played in the new recording was between the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and what Iranian state media identified as the HMS Montrose on July 19.

Revolutionary Guard: ‘British warship F236, this is (INAUDIBLE). You are required not to interfere in this issue.’

Male with British accent: ‘(INAUDIBLE)…navy control vessel, this British warship Foxtrot 236. I am in the vicinity of an internationally recognised strait with a merchant vessel in my vicinity conducting transit passage.’

Another earlier incident involved the British Heritage commercial tanker and Iranian commandos on July 10.

IRGC: ‘British warship Foxtrot 236. This is (INAUDIBLE). Do not put your life in danger.’  

British man: ‘This British warship Foxtrot 236, go ahead.’

IRGC: ‘(INAUDIBLE )…British tanker British Heritage is under my control. You are ordered do not interfere in my operation.’

The video also contains an exchange between the Guards and the same British warship during a stand-off involving the British Heritage oil tanker, according to Tasnim. 

Three Iranian vessels attempted to block the passage of a ship, the British Heritage, through the Strait of Hormuz, but withdrew after warnings from a British warship, the British government said on July 11.

Britain last week started sending a warship to accompany all British-flagged vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, a change in policy announced on Thursday after the government previously said it did not have resources to do so.

Today the HMS Duncan became the second warship to arrive in the Gulf when it joined the Frigate HMS Montrose to defend freedom of navigation. 

Britain told Iran today that if it wants to ‘come out of the dark’ it must follow international rules and release the oil tanker seized by its forces in the Gulf. 

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told Sky News: ‘If the Iranians want to come of the dark and be accepted as a responsible member of the intentional community they need to adhere to rules-based system of the international community.

‘You cannot go about detaining unlawfully foreign vessels.’

Britain said on July 11 that three Iranian vessels attempted to ‘impede the passage’ of the ‘British Heritage’ commercial oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz. 

The Iranian video aired today also contains an exchange between the Guards and the same British warship during a stand-off in mid-July involving the British Heritage oil tanker, according to Tasnim.

Aerial video footage of the warship, recorded by an Iranian drone, is shown during the second round of exchanges, Tasnim reported.

The British government claimed the three Iranian vessels withdrew after warnings from a Royal Navy warship. 

Two armed members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard inspect the British-flagged oil tanker Stena Impero, which was seized in the Strait of Hormuz

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani (right) talks to the Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi (left) at the Saad Abad palace in Tehran last Monday

Tehran has suggested the July 19 seizure of the Stena Impero was in retaliation for UK Royal Marines helping Gibraltar authorities detain an Iranian tanker in the Mediterranean Sea two weeks earlier. 

In another interview on Monday, with BBC radio, Raab said that the two seizures of ships by Britain and Iran were not equivalent.

‘Grace 1 was intercepted because it was in breach of sanctions and heading with oil for Syria and that was the intelligence,’ he said, referring to the Iranian ship seized by Britain.

‘We were absolutely lawful entitled to detain it in the way we did. The Stena Impero was unlawfully detained. 

‘This is not about some kind of barter. This is about the international law and the rules of the international legal system being upheld and that is what we will insist on.’

Crew members of the tanker Stena Impero, that was seized by Tehran, in footage previously  released by Iranian state TV 

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

Tensions have been escalating in the region for weeks, with US President Donald Trump last month calling off at the last minute an air strike on Iran over its downing of a US spy drone. 

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani wrote an open letter to Boris Johnson on Sunday calling for closer diplomatic ties with the new prime minister.

He has penned a letter to Johnson, saying he hopes the countries’ diplomatic ties will be stronger under his leadership. 

Tehran is angered by renewed sanctions imposed by the United States and what it sees as the failure of Britain and European powers to protect it from the fallout of Washington’s withdrawal from a nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers.

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

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