A foreign tanker which made a distress call after experiencing a technical malfunction in the Persian Gulf was towed by the Iranian navy to the country’s territorial waters, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said.
"Iranian sailors acted in strict compliance with international rules," the Al Mayadeen TV cited the Iranian diplomat as saying.
According to him, the ship will stay on the territory of Iran until the technical issue on board is fixed, Reuters reported.
A CNN reporter tweeted earlier that U.S. intelligence increasingly believed that the UAE tanker MT Riah had been forced into Iranian waters by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards naval forces. But the reporter added that other Gulf sources said it had simply broken down and may have been towed by Iranian vessels.
