UK seizure of an Iranian oil tanker off Gibraltar last week will not be ignored, Iran’s armed forces chief of staff, Maj Gen Mohammad Bagheri, said on Tuesday.

“Capture of the Iranian oil tanker based on fabricated excuses ... will not be unanswered and when necessary Tehran will give an appropriate answer,” The National reported quoting Maj Gen Bagheri.

The spokesperson for Iranian Foreign Ministry Abbas al-Musawi called the detention of the tanker Grace 1 by the authorities of Gibraltar an act of “piracy,”