The UK's Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) has summoned Iran's ambassador following a drone attack allegedly carried out by Tehran on an Israeli-owned oil tanker in the northern Indian Ocean. On August 2, James Cleverly, the UK's Minister for the Middle East, summoned Mohsen Baharvand, the Iranian Ambassador to Britain "in response to the unlawful attack on a merchant's vessel off the coast of Oman on 29 July, in which a British national and Romanian national were killed", according to international media reports.
Iran has also summoned the British charge subordinate diplomats in Tehran. The UK, the US, and Israel have accused Iran of carrying out the attack, which Tehran has denied. Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said that his country had "intelligence evidence of Tehan's involvement in the incident". The strike on the Mercer Street marked the first-known fatal attack after years of assaults on commercial shipping in the region linked to tensions with Iran over its tattered nuclear deal.
In a statement, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said: "The source of instability in the Persian Gulf is not Iran; it is rather the presence of warships and military forces of countries from outside the region." Iran also warned against "any adventurism by the occupying regime of Israel or others in the region".
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