31 Jul, 2019 15:48

‘Pirates of the Queen’: Iranian cartoonists tear into Britain for oil tanker seizure

The British might have invented cartoons, but the Iranians seem to have mastered the art, as Tehran hosts an exhibition of cartoons depicting “pirate” Queen Elizabeth II amid the maritime showdown between the two countries.

The display, entitled ‘Pirates of the Queen’, is running in the capital, Tehran till mid-August. Posters for the event feature a grotesque depiction of Elizabeth II in a rogue captain’s outfit with a sharp saber in her hand and a tricorn hat with skull and bones.

The caricaturists share the position of the country’s authorities, who insist the British acted like pirates when they seized Iranian oil tanker Grace 1 near Gibraltar on July 4, claiming it was transporting oil to Syria in violation of EU sanctions. Tehran responded to the move in tit-for-tat fashion, detaining a British-flagged tanker in the Strait of Hormuz two weeks later, accusing it of not helping a vessel in distress.

A group of 14 artists had to work really hard to prepare the exhibition, as the 35 works on display were created in the space of just three day, the organizers said.

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Plenty of jabs were thrown at the UK by the cartoonists, the Queen being the main target – despite the unlikelihood that she was the one who ordered the seizure of the tanker.

Elizabeth II was pictured drinking Iranian oil in one of the pictures, while being spanked with a miniature oil tanker by a man in an Iranian Revolutionary Guard uniform in another.