"Unlike the piracy in the Strait of Gibraltar, our action in the Persian Gulf is to uphold int'l maritime rules," Zarif wrote on his Twitter account, referring to the seizure of a UK-flagged tanker in the Persian Gulf on Friday.
Iranian officials said the tanker was seized because it had violated international maritime law by ignoring signals from a fishing vessel that the tanker had hit in the Strait of Hormuz. The tanker was escorted to the southern Iranian port Bandar Abbas.
"As I said in NY, it is IRAN that guarantees the security of the Persian Gulf & the Strait of Hormuz. The UK must cease being an accessory to #EconomicTerrorism of the US," Zarif added in the tweet.
The Iranian foreign minister who was visiting New York for a UN sustainable goals meeting, told media that due to the long coast on the Persian Gulf, the security in the region is important to Iran, and therefore, the country is playing a major role in providing the security in the Strait of Hormuz.
Zarif has also said that, unlike Iran, the United Kingdom seized the tanker carrying Iranian crude in Gibraltar earlier this month for appeasement of the US who is waging "economic terrorism" on Iran by imposing harsh sanctions.
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