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Britain sends second warship to gulf amid escalating tensions with Iran: Report

WION Web Team
New Delhi Updated: Jul 12, 2019, 05:39 PM IST
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British Royal Navy destroyer HMS Duncan (D37) is seen during a port visit in Istanbul, Turkey February 19, 2018. Photograph:(Reuters)

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British Royal Marines abseiled onto the Iranian tanker off the coast of the British territory recently and seized it over accusations it was breaking sanctions by taking oil to Syria. They landed a helicopter on the moving vessel in pitch darkness.

Amid growing tensions with Iran after British Royal Marines seized an Iranian tanker off the coast of Gibraltar last week, Britain is sending a second warship to the Gulf, Sky News report said.

According to the report, the destroyer HMS Duncan, which had been earmarked for deployment in the region anyway although not so soon, would sail to the Gulf in the next few days to join the frigate HMS Montrose, the report added.

Britain's Ministry of Defence had no immediate comment on the report.

British Royal Marines abseiled onto the Iranian tanker off the coast of the British territory recently and seized it over accusations it was breaking sanctions by taking oil to Syria. They landed a helicopter on the moving vessel in pitch darkness.

The move escalated a confrontation between Iran and the West just weeks after the United States called off airstrikes minutes before impact, and drew Washington's close ally into a crisis in which European powers had striven to appear neutral.

(With inputs from Reuters)