A spokesman for the Iranian Armed Forces said that the “unfounded claim” had been intended to increase tensions in the Persian Gulf, according to Tasnim, an official Iranian news agency.
The Strait of Hormuz has been the focal point of increasing tensions between Iran and the United States in recent months, after a series of incidents in the waterway, a narrow stretch through which a fifth of the world’s supply of oil flows.
Six tankers were damaged in May and June in the Gulf of Oman. The United States described the incidents as attacks by Iran, though Tehran denied any role.
On Thursday, Iranian media reported that the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps had detained a foreign oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz. The Revolutionary Guards said the vessel had been smuggling fuel, just days after a United Arab Emirates vessel with the same name disappeared in the Persian Gulf.
Relations between Iran and the United States have been deteriorating since last year, when Mr. Trump pulled the United States out of the landmark 2015 nuclear accord and began imposing a series of punishing economic sanctions on Tehran.
The 2015 agreement had limited Iran’s nuclear development in exchange for economic relief. With the new sanctions battering Iran’s economy, Tehran set deadlines for the European signers of the deal to come up with a strategy to ease their impact.
Since early July, Iran has begun slowly reducing its compliance with the accord.
Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/19/world/middleeast/iran-british-tanker-drone.html
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