Iran said Saturday the United Kingdom should be “scared” of possible retaliation after the Royal Marines captured an Iranian supertanker in Gibraltar.
“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 a powerful group of clerics, was quoted as saying in Fars, Iran’s semi-official news agency.
“We have shown that we will never remain silent against bullying … As we gave a staunch response to the American drone, the appropriate response to this illegal capture (of the tanker) will be given by Iran as well,” Reuters reported.
The tanker was seized on Thursday for trying to take oil to Syria in violation of EU sanctions.
Iran also repeated threats to increase its level of enriched uranium beyond limits stipulated in the 2015 nuclear deal, which the US exited.
Ali Akbar Velayati, Khamenei’s adviser on international affairs, said in the video that increasing enrichment closer to weapons-grade levels was “unanimously agreed upon by every component of the establishment,” the Associated Press reported.
“We will show reaction exponentially as much as they violate it. We reduce our commitments as much as they reduce it,” said Velayati, Khamenei’s adviser on international affairs. “If they go back to fulfilling their commitments, we will do so as well.”
Iran wants European leaders to offer a way for Tehran to avoid punishing economic sanctions, especially those targeting its crucial oil sales, that Trump put in place in the year since he pulled the US out of the pact.
Source » nypost