UK had no option but to end maritime piracy: Larijani

Iran’s Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani says Gibraltar’s decision to release the Iran-operated Grace 1 supertanker shows that Britain had to retreat from its maritime piracy.

According to Press TV, Larijani made the remarks while addressing an open session of parliament on Saturday after Gibraltar’s government announced on Thursday that it was releasing the supertanker seized by British Marines in the Strait of Gibraltar following a series of diplomatic efforts by Iran and in spite of pressure from the US for the vessel’s continued detainment.

In view of the Iranian nation's resistance over the past days, British officials realized that the Islamic Republic’s current situation is not like the past when they used to bully the country through conspiracies, he added.

They were forced to retreat from their "maritime piracy,” the top Iranian parliamentarian said.

Britain’s naval forces unlawfully seized the Grace 1 and its cargo of 2.1 million barrels of oil in the Strait of Gibraltar on July 4 under the pretext that the supertanker had been suspected of carrying crude to Syria in violation of the European Union’s unilateral sanctions against the Arab country.

Consisting of an irregular imposition of EU regulations on a non-EU member state, the measure was vehemently condemned by Tehran as being an act of “maritime piracy" done at the request of Washington.

SS