TEHRAN —
Iran on Wednesday slammed “inappropriate interference” by Germany and France
following their condemnation of Tehran for its seizure last week of two
Greek-flagged oil tankers in Gulf waters.
اضافة اعلان
“Such inappropriate interference in the independent
judicial processes of our country will not help resolve the issues,” Iranian
foreign ministry spokesman
Saeed Khatibzadeh said in a statement.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards seized the Greek tankers
in the Gulf on Friday, days after Athens confirmed it would deliver Iranian oil
it had seized from a Russian tanker to Washington.
The German and French foreign ministries, in
separate statements, condemned the seizure as a violation of international law,
and called on Iran to immediately release the ships and their crews.
Berlin considered Iran’s action “an unjustifiable
interference in commercial shipping and therefore constitute a severe violation
of international regulations.”
Paris stressed its “commitment to the rules of
international law protecting the freedom of navigation and ” and
called on Iran “to immediately cease its actions that contravene these rules”.
Khatibzadeh rejected “the issuance of such one-sided
and unjustifiable statements”.
He added that France and
Germany “are protesting
against the legal measures taken in Iran while remaining silent in the face of
the illegal seizure of the Iranian-flagged ship by the Greek authorities and
the unloading of its cargo.”
The
Revolutionary Guards — the ideological arm of
Iran’s military — had said it seized the tankers “due to violations”, without
elaborating further.
Greece has condemned Tehran’s detention of the two
ships as “tantamount to acts of piracy” and warned its citizens not to travel
to Iran.
One of the tankers had been sailing in international
waters, while the second was near the Iranian coast when it was seized, it
added.
Nine Greeks are among the crews, the Greek foreign
ministry said, without specifying the number of other sailors on board.
Iran said Saturday the crews of two tankers were in
“good health” and not under arrest.
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