On Friday, the UK Foreign Office accused Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of attacking tankers in the Gulf of Oman, adding that Tehran had already conducted attacks on oil tankers before.
The Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA) reported Saturday that Iran’s Foreign Ministry had summoned the UK ambassador to Tehran.
“During the meeting with Iran’s foreign ministry official, Iran strongly criticised Britain’s unacceptable stance regarding the attacks in the Gulf of Oman … No other country but Britain has supported America’s accusations over the attacks”, ISNA reported.
According to the report, the decision to summon the envoy was made following an assumption made by UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was “almost certainly” behind the attacks.
Following the incident with the oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman, the US immediately pinned the blame on the Islamic Republic, claiming that this assessment was based on intelligence. Washington’s position was echoed by the United Kingdom.
“It is almost certain that a branch of the Iranian military – the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps – attacked the two tankers on 13 June. No other state or non-state actor could plausibly have been responsible,” UK Foreign Office said in a statement on 14 June.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, in his turn, said that the United States was taking steps to undermine stability in the Middle East and the whole world.
In the meantime, earlier on Saturday, the Daily Star reported, citing unnamed sources, that the UK’s Royal Marines were being deployed to the Gulf of Oman following an alleged attack on two oil tankers on 13 June.
The incident near the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway that links the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf, took place on Thursday. Front Altair and another tanker, Japanese-operated Kokuka Courageous, were hit by explosions and caught fire.
