Pirates of the Queen: Iran Cartoonists Rebuke UK over Seizure of Oil Tanker

By Staff, Agencies

Iran has taken its campaign against the United Kingdom in the row over detained tankers to the top, portraying the Queen as a pirate chief in a new cartoon exhibition in Tehran.

The exhibition of 40 images is entitled Pirates of the Queen, a spoof on the film Pirates of the Caribbean. The Queen is shown wearing a tricorn black hat with skull and crossbones, naval uniform and a cutlass.

In another cartoon she is wading through water in a burglar’s outfit, wearing a mask and towing away a small oil tanker. The cartoon ship represents the Grace 1, the Iranian-owned vessel seized in Gibraltar since June on allegations of breaching European Union sanctions against Syria.

Some cartoons mock Britain for seizing the tanker at the request of its ally, the United States, as suggested by the Spanish foreign minister.

A drawing shows US President Donald Trump patting the head of a fox wearing a T-shirt with the Union Jack, the British banner, and holding Grace 1 between his fangs.

Another has the queen in an inflatable turtle float marked “Royal Navy” which is losing air.

Visitors to the exhibition said they were impressed by the artwork.

"I feel stronger" seeing these caricatures show "that Britain, bragging about its military might, can be put in its place and stopped," said Rezayi, an official visiting the exhibition.

Hassan Shayi, a businessman walking around the center, says he is "proud that despite the situation in which Iran is, the country still stands up to the great powers."

For him, the seizure of the British tanker, "shows the power of Iran, and they can no longer do what they want."

The exhibit’s curator, Masoud Shojaei-Tabatabayi, pointed out, “Our primary purpose of setting up this exhibition was a kind of a reaction to this blatant maritime piracy which was completely illegal”.