UK sends mediator to Iran over seized ship

ANKARA

The U.K. has sent a mediator to Iran after a British oil tanker was seized by Tehran in the Persian Gulf last week, an Iranian official said on Wednesday.

Mohammad Mohammadi Golpayegani, head of the supreme leader's office, said the mediator was sent for talks regarding Stena Impero British oil tanker which was detained for alleged violation of marine rules on Friday.

Golpayegani did not give further details, but he went on to hail Iran's policy.

U.K. Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt on Monday accused Iran of “state piracy” for detaining the British ship, urging it to release the vessel and its crew immediately.

According to Hunt, the tanker was surrounded by four vessels and a helicopter and was rerouted into Iranian waters. Although the ship is U.K. owned, none of the 23 crew members are British.

A second ship, the Mesdar, which is Liberian flagged but managed by a British company, was surrounded by 10 speed boats and is believed to have been escorted into Iranian waters, but Hunt has said the ship’s location is unclear.

Last week, a British warship prevented three Iranian navy vessels from obstructing the course of a British tanker exiting the Persian Gulf. The government accused Iran of breaching international law as the tanker was not in Iranian waters.

Moreover, Britain dispatched a second warship to the Persian Gulf to support U.K. forces in the region and to ensure the safety of British commercial ships.

Royal navy marines and commandos boarded the Syria-bound Iranian oil tanker on July 4 in Gibraltar, preventing the vessel from entering the Mediterranean.

Iran has demanded the release of its crew and vessel, accusing the royal navy of piracy, and has threatened London with retaliatory measures, rhetoric that is raising tensions between the two nations in a region already inflamed with war and brinkmanship with the West.

The EU had imposed a series of sanctions on the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria in response to the heavy crackdown on peaceful demonstrations in 2011 and the ensuing civil war.