Brief Face Off Between British, Iranian Ships at Strait

A brief face off just happened at the strait when three Iranian vessels tried to block a British-owned tanker passing, but backed off when confronted by a Royal Navy warship.

Reuters quoted a British government spokesman explaining that the British Heritage, operated by oil company BP, had been approached in the Strait of Hormuz, which controls the flow of Middle East oil to the world, between Iran and the Arabian peninsula.

"HMS Montrose was forced to position herself between the Iranian vessels and British Heritage and issue verbal warnings to the Iranian vessels, which then turned away," . It urged Iran to "de-escalate the situation in the region".

The incident comes a week after Britain seized an Iranian tanker Grace 1 off the coast of Gibraltar last week, accusing it of violating sanctions on Syria. Since then, Iranian officials have frequently suggested that Iran might retaliate against British shipping.

A British security source said London had already raised its threat warning level for British ships in Iranian waters to the highest possible category earlier this week, although it did not plan to escort every British-flagged vessel through the strait.

In Tehran, Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif dismissed as "worthless" the allegation that Iran sought to block the ship ‘Heritage’.