OAN Newsroom
UPDATED 11:16 AM PT – Sat. July 20, 2019
Iranian state television airs new footage of the British-flagged tanker seized by Tehran near the Strait of Hormuz.
A British-flagged oil tanker Stena Impero which was seized by the Iran’s Revolutionary Guard on Friday is photographed in the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas, Saturday, July 20, 2019. (Tasnim News Agency/via AP)
Local reports Saturday, the tanker is docked near Iranian ports in the strait, and was taken in response to Britain’s impounding of an Iranian tanker earlier this month.
A spokesman for Iranian leadership said the response was allowed by international law, and confronts what they call the “illegitimate economic war” on the nation.
Authorities claim the British tanker hit a fishing vessel, prompting them to detain the ship.
“Things have begun to stagnate a little,” U.S. ambassador of the European Union, Gordon Sondlan said. “They’ve begun to reach impasses on a number of fronts and I think, changing of the guard if you will, will be healthy for the relationship. And we will be able to start on a clean sheet of paper.”
Sondland added, he is excited to see the first woman as president of the European commission.
