Five boats believed to belong to Iranian Revolutionary Guards approached a British oil tanker in the Gulf on Wednesday and asked it to stop in Iranian waters close by, but withdrew after a British warship warned them over radio, a U.S. defense official said, Reuters reported.
“The UK’s Royal Navy frigate HMS Montros had been escorting the tanker,” the Jerusalem Post reports. “When given orders by the Iranian ships, the Navy frigate pointed its guns on the Iranians and warned them to back away. The Iranian ships backed away in response to the verbal warning.”
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, the one Democrats say is a ‘moderate’, warned Britain earlier in the day for previously seizing an Iranian tanker.
“The British unjustifiably seized the tanker in territorial waters of Spain where they occupy, as well as Gibraltar,” he said, according to Rouhani’s press office.
“We must all work hard to ensure full security in shipping lines throughout the world, and I tell the British that they are the initiator of insecurity and you will understand its consequences later.”
NEW: A British warship prevented an apparent attempt by five Iranian small boats to direct a UK-flagged oil tanker toward Iranian waters on Wednesday, according to two U.S. officials. https://t.co/TNPdf84dvi
— ABC News (@ABC) July 11, 2019
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