The captain of HMS Montrose, the British warship stationed in the Persian Gulf says that his ship has had 115 confrontations with the forces of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) since the first of July.

Commander Will King told the Times of London that Iranian military forces “heavily” tested his ship almost daily, deploying fast attack boats and drones as close as 200 meters in order to intimidate the warship.

According to King, Tehran harbored “a continuous intent to disrupt or interfere with UK interests in the area”.

The commander also mentioned arriving late to prevent the seizure of the British tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, while his Iranian counterpart sent him aggressive messages over the radio, mocking their failure, saying: “She’s mine now!”

“It was almost like some rather sick competition,” commander king said.

The British tanker Stena Impero was seized by the IRGC in response to the seizure of the Iranian tanker Grace 1 in Gibraltar by the British forces for violating EU sanctions against Syria.

According to commander King, Iranians were surprised to find no British citizen on Stena Impero: “There were no British nationals on there, which the Iranians were surprised about. They started asking tankers coming up through the Gulf of Oman, ‘Are there any British nationals there?’”

Meanwhile, Sky News reports that the British government is deploying unmanned aerial vehicles to the Persian Gulf in order to protect tankers that fly the British flag.

The Royal British Airforce currently has a number of reaper drones stationed in Kuwait for missions in Iraq and Syria, which might be used to protect the tankers if the decision is finalized.

The United States and Australia have already deployed some planes to the Persian Gulf to protect tankers passing through the Strait of Hormuz.