"Grace 1" oil tanker originally belonged to Russia; Iran official
The deputy chairman of Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Affairs Committee Abolfazl Hasan Beigi said the oil tanker that the UK seized was belonged to Russia.
Speaking to ILNA correspondent, he added that British are now acting as a soldier, and we saw that Britain seized Iran's oil ship which originally belonged to Russia.
On July 4, Gibraltar police and customs agencies, aided by a detachment of British Royal Marines, boarded and impounded Iranian supertanker Grace 1 in the Strait of Gibraltar, upon a request from the United States.
The British and Gibraltarian officials claim that the 300,000-ton supertanker was possibly transferring up to 2 million barrels of oil to the Baniyas refinery in Syria in breach of EU sanctions against the Arab country.
Hasan Beigi refers to U.S. calls for a special session of the United Nations atomic agency board and adding "fortunately, we saw the confrontation between the US and Russia very clearly, and also we witnessed contradiction between the members of the Board of Governors and the United States."
"China and Russia will never follow the U.S. and these two countries are even angry at Europe; because banks and other companies do not carry out economic and oil exchanges properly."
He said that most of the Europe's energy provided by Russia, and so Europeans need Moscow.
Iran has urged the UK to immediately release the Iranian supertanker it has illegally seized in Gibraltar, warning London against entering a “dangerous game with no end in sight”.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi rejected the claim Friday, saying the tanker was not bound for Syria because no Syrian port could receive a vessel of such capacity.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani also warned the UK about the “consequences” of the move, calling the action “very juvenile, heinous, and wrongful” and “to their [Britain’s] detriment.”
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