Iranian leaders said the country seized a British oil tanker on Friday in retaliation for the UK’s role in impounding an Iranian ship two weeks ago.

“The rule of reciprocal action is well-known in international law,” said Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei, a spokesman for Iran’s Guardian Council, according to the semi-official Fars news agency.

He added, Iran’s moves to “confront the illegitimate economic war and seizure of oil tankers is an instance of this rule and is based on international rights.”

The council’s comments are seen as a reflection of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s views.

The British-flagged Stena Impero was seized by Iran on Friday evening after a supposed hit-and-run collision with an Iranian fishing boat, whose distress signal it ignored, Reuters reported. None of the crew of 23 crew aboard are British nationals. Maritime trackers show it was headed to a port in Saudi Arabia. A second vessel, a tanker flying under a Liberian flag, was stopped and boarded by Iranian guards. But it was then allowed to continue on its way.

The seizure escalated already heightened tensions in the region. Britain’s Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt said he was worried that Tehran’s action had put it on a “dangerous path.”

The incident came the day after Britain refused to release the Iranian supertanker Grace 1, seized by the Royal Marines in Gibraltar on July 4.

“We hope for their sake they don’t do anything foolish,” President Trump said Friday. “If they do, they will pay a price like nobody’s ever paid a price.”

With Post wires