Iran Revolutionary Guards seize two vessels in Gulf: UK

The UK foreign ministry has said Iran seized two tankers in the Gulf on Friday.

2 min read

19 July, 2019

The British navy has a presence in the Gulf [Getty]

The UK foreign ministry has confirmed that two tankers were seized by Iranian Revolutionary Guards in the Gulf on Friday evening.

UK Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt said he was "extremely concerned" by the incidents and that the actions by Iran were "unacceptable".

"I'm extremely concerned by the seizure of two naval vessels by Iranian authorities in the Strait of Hormuz," he said in a statement. "These seizures are unacceptable."

Hunt said he will attend an emergency government session to see what can be done to secure the release of the two vessels.

He reported that the tankers seized were a British-flagged vessel and a Liberian-flagged vessel, but owned by a company in the UK.

The crews comprise a range of nationalities but are not believed to include British citizens.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards announced on Friday they had confiscated a British tanker in the strategic Strait of Hormuz for breaking "international maritime rules".

The Stena Impero tanker "was confiscated by the Revolutionary Guards at the request of Hormozgan Ports and Maritime Organisation when passing through the strait of Hormuz, for failing to respect international maritime rules," the Guards' official website Sepahnewsannounced.

The tanker "was led to the shore and handed over to the organisation to go through the legal procedure and required investigations," it said.

Tanker tracking service Marine Traffic showed that the UK-flagged, Swedish-owned Stena Impero last signalled its location near the Island of