Iran s elite Revolutionary Guards published footage on Monday purportedly showing the Guards warning off a British warship during their July 19 seizure of a British-flagged oil tanker near the Strait of Hormuz.
Iranian commandos seized British-flagged tanker Stena Impero in the world s most important waterway for oil shipments, two weeks after British forces captured an Iranian oil tanker near Gibraltar, accused of violating sanctions on Syria.
The video, published by the semi-official Tasnim news agency, contains footage of the capture of the tanker, showing Guards abseiling onto the deck from a helicopter, with the audio recording superimposed.
"You are required not to interfere in these issues," the Guards navy representative says.
"This is British warship foxtrot two three six. I am in the vicinity of an internationally recognized strait with a merchant vessel in my vicinity conducting transit passage," a voice with a British accent replies.
"Don t put your life in danger," the Guards navy representative says.
The video also contains an exchange between the Guards and the same British warship during a stand-off in mid-July involving the British Heritage oil tanker, according to Tasnim.
Three Iranian vessels attempted to block the passage of a ship, the British Heritage, through the Strait of Hormuz, but withdrew after warnings from a British warship, the British government said on July 11.
Britain last week started sending a warship to accompany all British-flagged vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, a change in policy announced on Thursday after the government previously said it did not have resources to do so.
