Britain was deceived by United States; Iranian official
A Member of National Security and Foreign Policy Committee of Iranian Parliament Mohammad Ebrahim Rezaei said Iran will certainly punish the English.
Speaking to ILNA news agency, Rezaie warned London government, adding that Britain was “deceived” by the US, following the seizure of an Iranian oil tanker on Thursday in Gibraltar.
British Royal Marines seized the supertanker Grace 1 on Thursday for trying to transport oil to Syria in violation of European Union sanctions in a move which drew Tehran's fury and could escalate its confrontation with the West.
“The English were deceived by America, as the Americans would not dare to do something like this, so they made the English do it. They want to drag U.S.-Iran confrontation to other countries.”
“The English have committed a big mistake,” Rezaei said. “The Islamic Republic will certainly punish the British and will impose a serious cost on England.”
“The Americans are aware that anyone who violates our rights will certainly be punished, and that is why they fooled the English into taking an idiotic action,” he said. “These two tankers will be released.”
"I am openly saying that Britain should be scared of Iran's retaliatory measures over the illegal seizure of the Iranian oil tanker," Mohammad Ali Mousavi Jazayeri, a member of the Assembly of Experts also said on Saturday.
The ship's seizure comes at a sensitive time as the EU mulls over how to respond to Iran announcing it will go beyond the maximum uranium enrichment level it agreed to in a landmark 2015 nuclear deal.
Iran’s 60-day deadline for the European signatories to a 2015 nuclear deal to meet their end of the bargain will expire on Sunday, when Tehran will begin to enrich uranium beyond limits set by the nuclear accord, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
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