IRGC Navy commander warns against unloading Iranian oil from seized tanker

The commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy has warned that any oil company unloading hundreds of thousands of barrels of seized Iranian oil sitting in a Greek tanker off the coast of Texas would be held accountable.

“We hereby declare that we would hold any oil company that seeks to unload our crude from the vessel responsible and we also hold America responsible," Rear Admiral Alireza Tangsiri said Thursday. 

"The era of hit and run is over, and if they hit, they should expect to be struck back," he added. 

Adm. Tangsiri's remarks came on the anniversary of Iran's confiscation of a British-flagged tanker in the Strait of Hormuz in 2019 after Britain had seized an Iranian oil tanker off Gibraltar. 

The confiscation came "in response to the maliciousness of the British, and when our ships went towards that tanker, the escort helicopter came above the tanker, which we warned that if it does not land, we will shoot it, which it complied, and after that an escorting warship also approached our waters, which we also warned, if it does not move away from the area, it will be targeted, and it also followed the order," he recalled. 

"England has a lot of maliciousness and is more malicious than America," Tangsiri said.

SS