Iran supertanker release proves country's international might: Military chief

Iran's top military commander says the release of the Iranian-operated Adrian Darya 1 supertanker, which was seized by British marines in the Strait of Gibraltar last month, proves the Islamic Republic's power at the international level.

"The shooting down of an intruding US spy drone and the seizure of the violating British oil tanker and finally, the release of our country's tanker in Gibraltar, prove the fact that the Islamic Revolution strongly continues on its path to achieve its lofty goals,” Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Mohammad Baqeri said on Monday.

Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) in June shot down an intruding American spy drone over the country’s southern coastal province of Hormozgan.

The IRGC said in a statement then that the Global Hawk spy drone was brought down by its Aerospace Force near the Kouh-e Mobarak region — which sits in the central district of Jask County — after violating Iranian airspace.

PressTV-Iran’s IRGC shoots down intruding US spy drone

Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps shoots down an intruding American spy drone in the country’s southern coastal province of Hormozgan.

Read more:

• Iranian lawmakers praise IRGC for shooting down intruding US spy drone
• Iran’s downing of intruding US spy drone right move: Analyst
• Iran downing of sophisticated US spy drone can be repeated: Khanzadi

A few weeks later, on July 19, the IRGC also legally seized the 30,000-tonne UK-flagged Stena Impero tanker, which had collided with an Iranian fishing boat and ignored its recurrent distress calls.

• Iran defends seizure of British tanker in letter to UN Security Council
• Ayatollah Khamenei thanked IRGC for tackling US drone, UK tanker: Representative

On July 4, Britain’s naval forces unlawfully seized the Adrian Darya 1 vessel, then known as Grace 1, and its cargo of 2.1 million barrels of oil in the Strait of Gibraltar under the pretext that the supertanker was carrying crude to Syria in violation of the European Union’s unilateral sanctions against the Arab country.

Tehran, however, rejected London’s claim about the tanker’s destination and slammed the seizure as “piracy.”

Gibraltar’s government said on Sunday that it has knocked back a request by Washington to detain the Adrian Darya 1 supertanker carrying Iranian oil.

PressTV-Gibraltar rejects US demand to detain Iran-run tanker

Gibraltar’s government knocks back a US request to detain the Adrian Darya 1.

“The EU sanctions regime on Iran is fundamentally different to that of the US,” the Gibraltar Government said in a statement on Sunday.

• Iran-operated tanker Adrian Darya leaves anchorage at Gibraltar
• Iran warns US against trying to seize its tanker following release from Gibraltar

Elsewhere in his remarks, Iran's top general said, "The effort launched by the US to form a coalition and hatch new plots in the Persian Gulf has all but failed."

The Iranian commander further noted that the effort was continuation of previous conspiracies by the enemies of the Islamic Republic who created Takfiri terrorist groups that are not committed to any humanitarian principle, in the hope of laying siege on the Islamic Republic and undermining its strength in the region.

The United States has been trying to persuade its allies into an international coalition with the declared aim of providing “security” for merchant shipping in the Strait of Hormuz — through which about a fifth of all oil consumed globally passes —and other strategic Middle Eastern shipping lanes.

Washington claims Tehran has played a role in two separate attacks on oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman in May and June, without providing any credible evidence to support the accusations which Iran has categorically rejected.

• Zarif: US coalition in Persian Gulf ‘failure in advance’
• US-led Persian Gulf coalition doomed to fail: Senior IRGC cmdr.
• US-planned Persian Gulf coalition meant to blockade Iran: Commentator

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