British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has urged Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi to follow a better path, cooperate with the West, and return to full compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal.
In an exclusive interview with Britain’s The Telegraph, Raab stressed that his country remains calm and composed in the face of "nefarious conduct."
Rabb called Raisi hours before the constitutional oath of the Iranian president and told him that Iran has two options, either building trust with international partners or watching Iran fall further into isolation.
"Under this new president, there is an opportunity to take steps to build up some confidence and goodwill with the rest of the international community or take steps further and further into pariah status."
London sent the British chargé d'affaires in Tehran to the inauguration of Raisi, who earned the nickname the "Butcher of Tehran" for ordering the execution of political prisoners while a judge.
The call comes following maritime tension, which began last week with the attack on the Mercer Street tanker before the crisis deepened when armed men tried to hijack a Panama-flagged tanker in the Arabian Sea on Tuesday.
Naval security sources said they suspect Iranian-backed forces were behind the attack, and Washington said Iranians had hijacked the ship but could not confirm it.
Britain told the UN Security Council on Tuesday it was "highly likely" that Iran used one or more drones to carry out the tanker attack, which killed two crew members - a Briton and a Romanian.
Reuters cited diplomats as saying that Britain will raise the issue of the attack off the coast of Oman during a closed-door Security Council meeting on Friday. However, the 15-member body is not expected to take any action.
Tehran has denied any involvement in Thursday's attack on Mercer Street - a Liberian-flagged, Japanese-owned petroleum product tanker managed by Israeli-owned Zodiac Maritime.
The United States and Britain said Sunday that they would work with their allies to respond to the attack.
Britain issued a formal attribution of blame against Iran at the weekend, combined with a vow to retaliate.
The "concerted response" is expected to be enacted within weeks, although it may not be publicly acknowledged. Ministers are reportedly considering launching an offensive cyber-attack.
Defending the government's decision to take time to consider its options before acting, Raab said: "I don't think it's a smart move to be sounding off on Twitter or signaling what action we intend to take."
However, the public can "assume that there will need to be a holding to account for egregious behavior like that," he added.
Russia believes that there is a need to establish facts before taking action concerning last week's attack on the Mercer Street tanker, Russian First Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Dmitry Polyansky told reporters on Wednesday.
"We are still studying the details, there is a lot of conflicting information, a lot of 'highly likely' analysis, which we reject. So, we need to establish facts," he pointed out, adding that there was no need "to rush to any conclusions or actions."
The Iranian mission to the United Nations warned the Security Council of "suspicious artificial maritime incidents" in the Gulf. It demanded the cessation of actions that would harm regional security and stability.
In her letter on Wednesday, Iran's Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Zahra Ershadi rejected the "unfounded" allegations leveled by Britain, Liberia, and Romania that Iran had been behind the attack without presenting any shred of evidence to substantiate their claims.
The official IRNA news agency quoted the official saying that Iran attaches "great importance to the maritime security and freedom of navigation."
She warned about such threats from any source and said Iran "will not hesitate to take all necessary measures to protect its people vigorously, defend its sovereignty and secure its national interests."
