DUBAI, February 15. /TASS/. Iran will take reciprocal measures if any Iranian vessel is detained, Iranian Vice President for Legal Affairs Mohammad Dehghan told the ISNA news agency.

"We will not limit ourselves to the legal framework. If an Iranian vessel is detained, we will give a reciprocal response," the agency quoted him as saying. Commenting on a claim by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) that Iranian oil had been seized, the vice president said he had no information on whether such a case had taken place and it was better to inquire with the relevant agencies. "Sometimes they detain some other ship by mistake, thinking it is ours," Dehghan emphasized.

On February 3, the DOJ issued a statement saying that the United States had seized 520,000 barrels of Iranian oil on the grounds that funds from the sale of the hydrocarbons could allegedly be used to support the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, an elite branch of Iran's armed forces.