Iranian, UAE Coast Guards to Discuss Bilateral Cooperation in Tehran - Reports

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Coast guard officers from Iran and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will meet in Tehran after a six-year hiatus to discuss bilateral cooperation, the ISNA news agency reported. 

According to the agency, a UAE delegation consisting of seven high-ranking coast guard officials has recently arrived in Tehran.

The last such meeting was held in the Iranian capital in 2013.

The meeting comes as tensions continue to escalate in the Persian Gulf region. Most recently, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps seized UK-flagged oil tanker Stena Impero in the Strait of Hormuz on 19 July over an alleged breach of international maritime regulations.

A picture taken on July 21, 2019, shows Iranian Revolutionary Guards patrolling around the British-flagged tanker Stena Impero as it's anchored off the Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas.

© AFP 2023 / HASAN SHIRVANI

The move came two weeks after Iran's own Grace 1 oil tanker had been seized by UK marines over purported violations of the European Union's sanctions against Syria.

Earlier on Tuesday, Germany and the UK rejected the US proposal to join its anti-Iran maritime coalition, adding that they welcomed London's initiative for a European-led security effort to protect commercial ships in the Persian Gulf.