Britain's Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt says the oil tanker will be released if there if the Islamic Republic provides a guarantee that it will not sail to Syria.
A senior EU official told reporters on July 12 that it is not time yet to use the so-called trigger mechanism determined in the nuclear deal with Iran to settle differences with the country.
The Pentagon says it is moving closer to establishing military escorts for ships in the Persian Gulf, hours after Britain said armed Iranian boats “attempted to impede” a British oil tanker.
Iran may have stood down from its hard-line stance that conditioned negotiations with the United States to Washington's returning to the nuclear deal it had left in May 2018 before imposing hard sanctions on Tehran.
U.S. media are reporting that five armed Iranian boats attempted to seize a British tanker in the strategic Strait of Hormuz but were driven off by a Royal Navy vessel, in a move that followed threats by Iran to capture a British ship.
U.S. President Donald Trump is threatening to ratchet up sanctions on Iran and has again denounced the 2015 nuclear deal Iran signed with world powers as the UN nuclear watchdog held an emergency meeting on Tehran's breach of the deal.
The United States has described Iran's decision to boost uranium enrichment as "nuclear blackmail", repeating its offer of talks without preconditions.
European signatories of the Iran nuclear deal say they are "deeply worried" about Tehran’s decision to increase uranium enrichment level and have called for an urgent meeting of the JCPOA Commission.
UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has confirmed on Monday July 8 that the level of uranium enrichment by Iran has gone beyond the 3.67 percent allowed by the 2015 nuclear accord.
Iran's reformist faction of the establishment is worried that if people give up hope on reforms in the country "subversive" forces might gain momentum posing a mortal danger to the Islamic Republic.
The EU has expressed "serious concern" over Iran's new step in suspending its commitment to the nuclear deal, while Israel has called Iran's new measures "very very dangerous" and accused Tehran of moving toward producing nuclear bombs.
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