Strait of Hormuz 0
20 July 2019

Following Iran’s seizure of a UK-flagged tanker on 19 July, UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt stated that “Iran may be choosing a dangerous path of illegal and destabilising behaviour after Gibraltar’s legal detention of oil bound for Syria”, adding that “our reaction will be considered but robust”. Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif posited that “unlike the piracy in the Strait of Gibraltar, our action in the Persian Gulf is to uphold international maritime rules”. He went on to say that “it is Iran that guarantees the security of the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz. [The] UK must cease being an accessory to the economic terrorism of the U.S.”.

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