A tanker at the centre of the latest row between Britain and Iran is registered in the island.

The Ministry of Defence said that three Iranian ships had tried to impede the British Heritage, a BP oil tanker, which has its home port registered as Douglas.

The vessels withdrew from the strait of Hormuz after a warning from a UK warship. An MoD spokesman said that HMS Montrose, a British frigate escorting the tanker, was forced to move between the three boats and the tanker.

It was previously reported earlier in the week that the tanker was sheltering off the coast of Saudi Arabia having made an unexpected U-turn while on it way to the Iraqi city of Basra where it should’ve docked last weekend.

Iran had threatened to retaliate for the seizure of one of its own tankers in Gibraltar last week, but Tehran has denied any attempted seizure.

The BBC is reporting that: ’Boats believed to belong to Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) approached British Heritage and tried to bring it to a halt as it was moving out of the Gulf into the Strait of Hormuz.’

Guns on HMS Montrose were trained on the Iranian boats as they were ordered to back off which they did without the use of any weapons.

A UK government spokesman said: ’Contrary to international law, three Iranian vessels attempted to impede the passage of a commercial vessel, British Heritage, through the Strait of Hormuz.

’We are concerned by this action and continue to urge the Iranian authorities to de-escalate the situation in the region.’

However, the IRGC has denied any confrontation had taken place, tweeting: ’There has been no confrontation in the last 24 hours with any foreign vessels, including British ones.’