TEHRAN – Kamal Kharrazi, chief of the Strategic Council on Foreign Relations, has said the only way to stand up to the enemies’ bullying is resistance.

“Today, the Iranian people are glad that they managed to resist against U.S. bullying and show their power,” Kharrazi said on Sunday, Mehr reported.

He said the country should be ready to confront the threats since there is no end to the enemies’ plots against Iran.

Kharrazi, who has served as Iran’s foreign minister under President Khatami, also described the release of the Grace 1 oil tanker as a diplomatic victory for Iran and a defeat for Britain, which had detained the supertanker illegally.

Kharrazi describes the release of the Grace 1 oil tanker as a diplomatic victory for Iran and a defeat for Britain.

“Surely, these actions of the enemies will not end here and they will always plan new conspiracies against us and we should be ready to confront them,” he reiterated.

On Thursday, Gibraltar’s government announced it was releasing Grace 1 supertanker despite pressure from the U.S. for the vessel’s continued detainment.

The announcement came just before the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) unveiled a warrant for the seizure of the Iran-operated ship.

Tensions broke out between Tehran and London on July 4, after Britain’s naval forces unlawfully seized oil tanker Grace 1 and its cargo of 2.1 million barrels of oil in the Strait of Gibraltar, under the pretext that the supertanker had been suspected of carrying crude to Syria in violation of the European Union’s unilateral sanctions against the Arab country.

Tehran strongly rejected the claim.

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other top Iranian leaders had denounced the seizure as act of “piracy” which would not go “unanswered”.

Nearly two weeks after, Iranian forces seized a British-flagged oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz for involvement in an accident with an Iranian fishing boat, after the tanker ignored distress calls.

Allah-Morad Afifipour, head of Ports and Maritime Organization in southern Hormozgan Province, said that the 30,000-ton Stena Impero tanker had collided with a fishing boat on its route, adding that according to law, after an accident it is necessary that the causes are investigated.

MH/PA