Vessel With Contraband Fuel Seized By Iran In Persian Gulf Sailed Under UK Flag - Reports

The vessel carrying contraband fuel and seized by Iran in the Persian Gulf sailed under the flag of the United Kingdom, local media reported on Thursday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th July, 2019) The vessel carrying contraband fuel and seized by Iran in the Persian Gulf sailed under the flag of the United Kingdom, local media reported on Thursday.

Earlier in the day, Tehran said that the Iranian Armed Forces' Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said that it seized on Sunday a foreign vessel carrying contraband fuel in the Persian Gulf.

"The vessel detained by the IRGC was sailing in the Strait of Hormuz [a strategic waterway that links the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf] under the UK flag," a source told YJC news agency.

According to the source, the United Kingdom and the United States wanted the vessel to be presented as belonging to the United Arab Emirates. However, the latter refused to recognize the vessel because it did not want a new round of tensions with Iran.