(CNN)A former senior commander with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps has warned it would be Tehran’s “duty” to seize a British oil tanker if the Iranian tanker being held in Gibraltar is not released.
The vessel was stormed by British Royal Marines and Gibraltar port and law enforcement agencies in the early hours of Thursday morning as it was believed to have been carrying oil to Syria, in possible violation of European Union sanctions.
Mohsen Rezaee, who is currently Secretary of the Expediency Discernment Council — an advisory body to Iran’s Supreme Leader — tweeted that “if the UK does not release the Iranian oil tanker, our officials are duty-bound to reciprocate and seize a British oil tanker.”
