Iran Pledges To Do Utmost To Ensure Security In Persian Gulf, Strait Of Hormuz - Reports

Iran will do everything possible to ensure security in the Persian Gulf, especially the Strait of Hormuz, where there have recently been several incidents that resulted in increased global tensions, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi told French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian during their recent meeting, Iranian media reported on Wednesday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 24th July, 2019) Iran will do everything possible to ensure security in the Persian Gulf, especially the Strait of Hormuz, where there have recently been several incidents that resulted in increased global tensions, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi told French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian during their recent meeting, Iranian media reported on Wednesday.

The two diplomats met on Tuesday in Paris for consultations at the request of the Iranian President Hassan Rouhani after his phone talks with French President Emmanuel Macron.

According to the Iranian IRNA news outlet, Araghchi said that Tehran would never permit the sabotage of international shipping in its waters, of which the Strait of Hormuz is part of.

Araghchi's visit was made amid tensions in the Strait of Hormuz, which escalated on Friday when the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps seized the UK oil tanker Stena Impero over what it described as a breach of international maritime regulations. France along with the United Kingdom, Germany and some other countries has condemned the tanker's seizure.

The Strait of Hormuz is the only sea passage for the world's largest oil producers from the Persian Gulf to the Indian Ocean, making it the world's most important oil chokepoint due to the large volumes of oil traveling though the strait. According the US Energy Information Administration, over 20 percent of the world's oil consumption traveled through the strait in 2018.