"If you obey, you will be safe"

The British said days earlier that the same warship, the Montrose, had inserted itself in front of a group of Iranian boats to successfully deter their attempt to capture another British-owned tanker. But on Friday, British officials said, the Montrose was too far from the Stena Impero to reach it in time.

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In a separate video released by the semiofficial Iranian news agency Fars, small Iranian boats can be seen surrounding the Stena Impero. An Iranian helicopter flies above it, and several soldiers in black masks descend from the helicopter to take control of the tanker.

The audio of the capture, released by the maritime security firm Dryad Global, illustrates the difficult for even the comparatively formidable British Navy in protecting ships passing the Iranian coast through the Strait of Hormuz. A fifth of the world’s crude oil supply is carried through the narrow strait, a major choke point at the neck of the Persian Gulf.

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