The responsibility to free the British-flagged oil tanker seized last week by Iran “falls to the United Kingdom,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told "Fox & Friends" Monday, while warning the “whole world is waking up to the fact that this [Iranian] threat is real.”
The comments from Pompeo come as British Prime Minister Theresa May issued a fresh call for Iran to release the Stena Impero ship and its 23-person crew. The vessel, which was captured Friday in the Strait of Hormuz, currently is anchored outside the Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas.
“The responsibility…falls to the United Kingdom to take care of their ships,” Pompeo said when asked what role the U.S should play in the matter. “This is a bad regime. It’s not honoring the people of Iran. They have now conducted what amounts to national piracy – a nation-state taking over a ship that’s traveling in international waters.”