Iranian speedboats circle the Stena Impero - Morteza Akhoondi

Iran’s president has suggested he will release the British tanker seized in the Strait of Hormuz if the UK releases an Iranian tanker seized off Gibraltar, in his most explicit offer yet to resolve the crisis through an exchange.

Iran initially claimed it captured the Stena Impero last Friday for violating international maritime rules but in recent days officials have made clear that the seizure was a tit-for-tat response to UK actions in Gibraltar.

Hassan Rouhani, Iran’s president, said Wednesday that if Britain reverses its "wrong actions, including what they did in Gibraltar” then "they will receive a proper response from Iran”.

There was no immediate UK reaction to Mr Rouhani’s offer.

The UK has insisted that it seized the Iranian tanker because it was taking oil to Syria in violation of EU sanctions, while condemning the Iranian action as “state piracy”.

Britain denies that it took the Iranian ship off Gibraltar at the request of the Trump administration or any other state.

Meanwhile, the operator of the Stena Impero said it had been allowed to speak to the 23 crew members being held in Iran for the first time and that the sailors all appeared to be in good health.

Iranian speedboats circle the Stena Impero Credit: Morteza Akhoondi

“We had direct contact with the crew on board the vessel last night by telephone and they're all okay and in good health and they're getting good cooperation with the Iranians on board the vessel," said a spokesman for Stena Bulk, a Swedish shipping firm.

"We see this as a first step and progress towards a resolution,” the spokesman said.

British officials have denied a claim by the Iranian supreme leader’s chief of staff that the UK sent a mediator to try to resolve the standoff.

“A country that at one time appointed ministers and lawyers in Iran has reached a point where they send a mediator and plead for their ship to be freed,” said Mohammad Mohammadi-Golpayegani, a senior aide to Ayatollah Khamenei.

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UK officials said the claim was not true and that any communication with Iran’s government would be managed by the British embassy in Tehran or through the Foreign Office.

Iranian media has been transfixed by the standoff with the UK and many Iranian newspapers carried coverage of Boris Johnson’s elevation to prime minister on their front pages, often comparing him to Donald Trump.

The conservative Javan newspaper ran a cartoon of Mr Trump and Mr Johnson with their blonde hair intertwined. “Trump’s double in London,” the headline read.

Front page of #Iran’s Javan newspaper this morning:



‘Trump’s Double in London’ pic.twitter.com/01aruxvYjB



— Golnar Motevalli (@golnarM) July 24, 2019

Even amid the change of government in London, British officials continued discussing plans for a European-led naval mission to protect shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. The UK has spurned a US offer to join an American-led mission, known as Operation Sentinel.

France said last night that the European mission would be "the opposite of the American initiative” and was not intended to provoke Iran.

Despite positive initial reactions from European states to the British suggestion, it remains unclear if the project will get off the ground or what naval assets EU countries would commit to the mission.

Meanwhile, Iran and the US continued a verbal spat over the downing of an Iranian drone by the USS Boxer last week.

The US claims to have brought down at least one Iranian drone and suggested on Tuesday that it may have taken down a second drone but could not be sure.

Iran denies that it has lost any drones to the US. Hossein Salami, the commander of the Revolutionary Guard, challenged the US to prove it had taken out any Iranian aircraft.

“Publish the video footage of destroying our drone if you want to prove your claim,” he said.