Iranian president says retaliatory measures help its diplomacy with West

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Iranian President Hassan Rouhani implied for the first time that the seizure of the British vessel the Stena Impero in the Persian Gulf on July 19 was a response to Britain’s seizure of the Iranian Grace 1 tanker off the coast of Gibraltar on July 4.

Speaking at a conference in Tehran, Rouhani said that Tehran uses its might as a complimentary measure to its diplomacy to achieve its foreign policy goals. 

“We use our both hands to do things; the hand of power and the hand of diplomacy,” said Rouhani, according to the state-run news agency IRNA. “So if they seize the ship from us, we negotiate on the one hand but on the other hand, we seize a ship from them for legal reasons.”

“So we can use both hands and using this method we will overcome the problems.”

British forces seized the Adrian Darya 1, previously known as Grace 1, tanker due to suspicions it was violating EU sanctions against Syria in relation to its civil war by bringing oil to the country. 

Iranian government spokesman Ali Rabei said that Iran has sold the oil from the Adrian Darya tanker, but said details of the sale are not known to Tehran.

“The destination of this tanker is decided by the buyer …we are not aware of its final destination,” he said. “The buyer decides where and how to collect the oil.” 

Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commanders have admitted in the past that its subsequent seizure of the British ship was a response to the Royal Marines impounding the Adrian Darya. 

Rouhani is facing a backlash inside the country from hardliners who believe that current negotiations with the West will produce no tangible results. They even question the wisdom of negotiating the 2015 nuclear deal, considering US President Donald Trump withdrew from the agreement in 2018.

Tensions in the Persian Gulf soared in May when the Trump administration ended oil waivers to eight main customers of Iranian oil in order to bring down its oil exports to zero after it withdrew from the nuclear accord. Iran said that if it is not able to export its oil through the Strait of Hormuz, it will not allow other countries to use the world’s most important oil choke point. 

Following attacks on several oil tankers and last month’s seizure of the British-flagged Stena Impero, the US has intensified its efforts to set up an international coalition to safeguard freedom of navigation. The UK announced on Saturday that it was deploying the HMS Defender to join two other warships in the Persian Gulf as part of the International Maritime Security Construct (IMSC) to secure safe passage alongside international partners. Australia, Israel and a number of other countries have expressed interest in becoming part of the coalition.

Iran announced on Monday that it has deployed the domestically-manufactured Sahand warship equipped with Cruise missiles to the Gulf of Aden to protect its ships sailing from the Sea of Oman to the Gulf of Aden.

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif had a surprise visit to France this week and met with the French foreign minister and finance minister as well as President Emmanuel Macron to talk about oil and banking issues involving Iran related to sanctions against the Islamic Republic. France is trying to resolve the differences between Iran and the West in hopes of saving the landmark nuclear accord. 

France’s effort has taken an extra urgency as Tehran’s ultimatum to scale back on its commitment under the nuclear deal nears in early September.  

“You know we are in a situation that the most severe sanctions have been imposed on us for a year, however we resist these sanctions and we retaliate and scale back on our commitments,” Rouhani said on Monday. “We have reduced our commitments in two stages and it is possible that we will reduce them further, however we always give two months’ time in between to give diplomacy …a chance.”