The UK's seizure of an Iranian oil tanker off Gibraltar will not go "unanswered", Iran's armed forces chief of staff has said.
The Iranian tanker was impounded by Royal Marines in Gibraltar on Thursday amid suspicion it was carrying oil to Syria in violation of European Union sanctions.
Iran has demanded the immediate release of the oil tanker, while an Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander threatened on Friday to seize a British ship in retaliation.
An oil tanker run by BP Plc is being kept inside the Persian Gulf amid fears it could be seized by Iran in a tit-for-tat response, according to Bloomberg.
The British Heritage, able to haul about 1 million barrels of oil, was sailing towards Iraq’s Basrah terminal in the south of the country when it made an abrupt u-turn on July 6.
It is understood that the ship was hovering off Saudi Arabia’s coast.
“It’s a psychological game that’s being played,” Olivier Jakob, managing director of consultancy Petromatrix GmbH, told the publication. “Nobody wants to be that one whose vessel is seized in a ‘tit-for-tat’.”
Meanwhile Iran's armed forces chief of staff, Major General Mohammad Bagheri said on Tuesday: "Capture of the Iranian oil tanker based on fabricated excuses ... will not be unanswered,” according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency.
“When necessary Tehran will give appropriate answer,” he said.
It comes after Iran’s Defence Minsiter Amir Hatami said Britian’s impounding of the ship was a “threatening act”.
Mr Hatami said in a speech on state television on Monday: "These days we witnessed a threatening act from the government of England in the Strait of Gibraltar against a tanker from the Islamic Republic of Iran.
"This is an incorrect and wrong action, an action similar to maritime robbery...certainly these kind of robberies will not be tolerated."
Iran denies the vessel was headed to Syria, where the government of President Bashar al-Assad is an ally of Tehran, but did not specify the final destination of the vessel.
Mr Hatami said Iran's downing of an unmanned American aircraft last month sent a message that the Islamic Republic would defend its borders.
Washington said the drone was shot down over international waters.
Separately, Iranian army chief Major General Abdolrahim Mousavi said on Monday that Iran is not looking for war with any country, according to the semi-official Mehr news agency.
