Al-Monitor | Makram Najmuddine: Two tankers stranded in two straits almost 4,000 miles apart are threatening to sink the already-adrift relationship between Britain and Iran.

When it comes to Iran, Britain is the old fox who’s always desperate to exploit Persia.

Britain’s decision to back authorities in Gibraltar as they seized control July 4 of Iranian oil supertanker Grace 1 was seen in Tehran as a pretext for escalation that could facilitate Britain’s exit from the Iran nuclear deal and join forces with the United States in pressuring Iran.

This was clear in Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif’s first tweet after Britain elected Prime Minister Boris Johnson on July 23. Zarif wrote about outgoing Prime Minister Theresa May’s seizure of the tanker at the “behest of [the] US,” calling it “piracy, pure and simple.”

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