Tuesday, July 23, 2019
LONDON (AP) — Iran's foreign minister has congratulated Boris Johnson on becoming Britain's next prime minister after Johnson's victory in the Conservative Party's leadership vote.
Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted: "I congratulate my former counterpart."
Zarif says Iran isn't seeking confrontation amid the tanker crisis in the Persian Gulf but that it has 1,500 miles of coastline. "These are our waters & we will protect them."
Iranian officials have suggested a British-flagged tanker was seized last week in response to Britain's role in seizing an Iranian oil tanker two weeks earlier off the coast of Gibraltar, a British overseas territory located on the southern tip of Spain.
Zarif today also blamed Theresa May's government for the seizure of the Iranian tanker, describing it as "piracy, pure & simple."