On Thursday, the government of Gibraltar said it had detained a tanker loaded with two million barrels of crude oil at the request of the US. Gibraltar Chief Minister said that his government "had reasons to believe" that the tanker was headed to the Banyas Refinery in Syria, belonging to an entity that is subject to the EU sanctions against Syria, Sputnik reported.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has condemned the EU over the seizure of an Iranian oil tanker in the Strait of Gibraltar, saying that this move contradicts the EU's statements on its intention to preserve the Iranian nuclear deal.
The ministry decried the seizure, stressing that it deliberately aimed to aggravate the situation around Syria and Iran.
The seizure also threatened to aggravate a dispute between Britain and Spain over Gibraltar, a British territory that Spain contests.
Spain's acting foreign minister, Josep Borrell, said the United States had asked the UK to intercept the ship.
Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi, tweeted that the British ambassador to Tehran had been summoned over the "illegal" seizure of the oil tanker.
A senior Iranian Foreign Ministry official condemned the operation by the Royal Marines, calling it "piracy."
The official said the UK does not have the right to implement its or the EU's unilateral sanctions against other nations in an extraterritorial manner.
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