This archive report was first published on 19 July 2019.
On July 19, 2019, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards announced that they had confiscated a British tanker, the Stena Impero, in the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
The tanker was seized for allegedly failing to respect international maritime rules, according to the Guards' official website, Sepahnews.
According to Marine Traffic, the UK-flagged, Swedish-owned Stena Impero last signalled its location near the Island of Larak in the Strait of Hormuz at 9pm local time (1630 GMT).
The UK government spokesperson stated that they were 'urgently seeking further information and assessing the situation following reports of an incident in the Gulf.'
This incident comes just hours after Gibraltar's Supreme Court extended by 30 days the detention of an Iranian tanker seized two weeks ago on allegations that it was headed to Syria in violation of sanctions.
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had previously accused the 'vicious British' of 'piracy' and vowed retaliation.
The Strait of Hormuz is a critical waterway, responsible for nearly a third of the world's crude oil.
