Iran yesterday said it had captured an oil tanker and seven sailors it accused of “smuggling” fuel through the Persian Gulf to Arab states – the third such seizure in recent months.

Iranian state television reported that the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp detained the tanker, its crew and 700,000 litres of fuel on Wednesday.

"The seizure of the oil tanker was in coordination with Iran's judiciary authorities and based on their order. It was taken to the Bushehr port, where its fuel was handed over to the authorities,” said Guards commander Ramezan Zirahi.

The incident marks the latest instalment in a series of actions designed to broadcast power and strength to the West. Tensions in the Persian Gulf have been high since US President Donald Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal last year, cutting the prized economic lifeline Tehran was offered in exchange for curtailing its nuclear programme.

Since then, Iran has struggled to fight back against a combination of sanctions and diplomatic isolation, and to curtail rampant fuel smuggling, by sea and land, to neighbouring countries including Arab rivals.

Entreaties to European signatories to the nuclear deal to pressure the US to back down have thus far fallen short, leaving Tehran looking to its nuclear programme and the Strait of Hormuz for sticks where carrots have failed. The IRGC captured the Panama-flagged Riah last month, accusing it of smuggling cheap, state-subsidized Iranian fuel.