PANAMA CITY, July 20 (Xinhua) -- Panama has begun the process of withdrawing the registration of an oil tanker called MT Riah, which was reported to have disappeared when passing through the Strait of Hormuz on July 14, the country's maritime authority said on Saturday.
Panama began the flag withdrawal process on Friday after an investigation determined the tanker had "deliberately violated international regulations," the authority said in a statement.
"We roundly condemn the use of Panamanian flagged ships for illicit activities," the authority said.
Panama, which has the largest shipping fleet in the world, has recently withdrawn flags from dozens of vessels, some of which were operated by Iran, according to media reports.
The incident follows the brief standoff between the British navy and Iranian Revolutionary Guard vessels recently.
The British navy said it warned three Guard vessels away after they tried to impede the passage of a commercial British tanker that the navy was escorting.
Britain's Royal Marines assisted in the seizure of an Iranian oil supertanker on July 4 by Gibraltar, a British overseas territory off the southern coast of Spain.
Britain has said it would release the vessel if Iran could prove it was not breaching European Union sanctions on oil shipments to Syria. However, on Friday, a court in Gibraltar extended by 30 days the detention of the Panama-flagged Grace.
Iran said on Wednesday that it towed a vessel into its waters from the strait after the ship issued a distress call.
After Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called the British action "piracy," the media suspected the move as a means of retaliation.
Although Tehran did not name the vessel, the Riah is the only ship that appeared to be active in that region during the time. The mystery at sea has added to high tensions in the Gulf.
