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THE RUNDOWN | Iran is threatening Britain, claiming the U.S. pushed it to seize the Iranian oil tanker. Britain claims it has nothing to do with the U.S., but that the tanker was violating sanctions on Syria. Our Jonathan Regev has the story and our Jonathan Sacerdoti and Shayna Estulin analyze.

Story:

Senior Iranian officials threatened Friday morning to seize a UK ship as a form of retaliation if it does not release the Iranian oil supertanker seized in the Gulf of Gibraltar that was en route to Syria.

Ignoring the Iranian vows of retaliation, a Gibraltar court on Friday evening extended the tanker's detention for fourteen days.

"If Britain does not release the Iranian oil tanker, it will be the duty of the authorities to take over a British oil tanker," Mushayn Rezai said on Twitter.

A senior Iranian foreign ministry official "called for the immediate release of the oil tanker, given that it has been seized at the request of the US, based on the information currently available", a statement released by the foreign ministry said.

The Iranian oil supertanker headed for Syria in violation of EU sanctions was detained in Gibraltar on Thursday, in a move that Iran condemned as an "illegal interception."

This comes amid deteriorating relations between Europe and Iran, as Western capitals slowly fall in line with US policy over Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday it would step up uranium enrichment on July 7.

Rouhani said explicitly this was in response to failure by the European signatories to the 2015 nuclear deal to circumvent US sanctions - even though they originally promised to do so.

The noose around Iran's economic power is tightening, with US rhetoric slowly moving towards depressing Iran's influence over the region and the world.

As part of this strategy, Washington has led a rapprochement between Gulf countries and Israel, building a tacit anti-Iran coalition.