Britain demanded the Security Council to respond to what it called Iranian behavior that threatens international navigation, while the Omani Maritime Security Center issued a statement about an oil tanker hijacked on Tuesday off the shores of the UAE and released today, Wednesday.
British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the UN Security Council must respond to Iran, following an attack on a tanker off the coast of Oman last week, which killed two people.
The British minister accused Iran of destabilizing behavior, and said, "The Council must respond to Iran's destabilizing behavior and its lack of respect for international law."
Britain and other countries sent a letter to the Security Council on Tuesday, accusing Iran of destabilizing the security of maritime navigation and of being behind the attack on the Zodiac ship operated by an Israeli company.
mysterious operation
This comes at a time when the question arises of who hijacked the oil tanker "Asphalt Princess" yesterday, Tuesday, and released it later at dawn today, Wednesday.
The British Navy said that the hijackers who boarded the "Asphalt Princess" ship off the coast of the United Arab Emirates in the Gulf of Oman had left the ship and that the incident was over.
The British Navigation and Trade Organization announced that the hijackers left the ship at about two o'clock in the morning GMT, and that the ship was delivered and that the accident had ended, and according to the signals issued by the ship, it is now on its way to Oman.
For its part, the Omani Maritime Security Center issued a statement regarding the oil tanker Asphalt Princess, which was hijacked off the coast of the UAE and released earlier.
The center said that the Omani Air Force conducted sorties near the site where the ship was detained.
The Maritime Security Center stated that it had received information about the hijacking of an oil tanker called Asphalt Princess, bearing the flag of Panama, and added that the Omani Navy had flown a number of its ships to contribute to securing international navigation.
Western reports
And Western media, quoting security sources, said they believed that Iranian-backed forces had seized a ship on Tuesday in the Gulf waters off the coast of the UAE.
Western reports stated that the ship Asphalt Princess - which flies the flag of Panama, and transports asphalt and bitumen - was hijacked when it was sailing from Khorfakkan in the Emirates to Sohar in the Sultanate of Oman.
Reuters quoted 3 naval security sources as saying that Iranian-backed forces are believed to have seized the ship.
Tensions in the region escalated after an attack last week on an Israeli-operated tanker off the coast of Oman, which killed two crew members, and was blamed by the United States, Israel and Britain on Iran, which has denied responsibility.