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Thursday, April 25, 2024 22:33 GMT
South Korea’s foreign ministry is reviewing whether a senior diplomat would be visiting Tehran on Sunday as planned, an official said, after Iranian forces seized a South Korean-flagged chemical tanker in Persian Gulf waters and detained its crew.The incident comes amid tensions between Tehran and Seoul over Iranian funds frozen in South Korean banks due to U.S. sanctions. Iranian state TV cited a Tehran government official as saying Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong-kun had been due to discuss Iran’s demand that US$7 billion in frozen funds be released.In Seoul a foreign ministry official told Reuters “the plan is unclear as of now” regarding Choi’s visit.Iranian media said on Monday that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps had seized the tanker Hankuk Chemi over pollution violations. The vessel was carrying 7,200 tons of ethanol.South Korea’s foreign minister said on Tuesday she is making diplomatic efforts to secure the release the tanker, Yonhap news agency reported. Kang Kyung-wha told reporters that she had first responded to her counterparts in Iran on Monday and the ministry is now in talks with diplomats in Tehran and in Seoul to resolve the issue.Iranian state television quoted Saeed Khatibzadeh, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, as saying the ship had been seized for “polluting the sea”. “According to initial reports by local officials, it is purely a technical matter and the ship was taken to shore for polluting the sea.” Last Sunday the Tehran Times newspaper reported Iran was hoping to negotiate an agreement to use the frozen funds to “barter” for coronavirus vaccine doses and other commodities. The South Korean foreign ministry did not have an immediate comment on that report.Asked about Iran’s intentions for the frozen assets, Kang said the safety of the ship’s crew was more important, Yonhap said.The semi-official Tasnim news agency published pictures showing the Guards’ speed boats escorting the tanker Hankuk Chemi. It said the vessel’s detained crew members included nationals of South Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam and Myanmar. Iran’s state TV said the tanker was being held at Iran’s Bandar Abbas port city. The ship had 20 crew members, according to South Korea’s foreign ministry. Seoul confirmed the seizure of a South Korean chemical tanker by Iranian authorities in the waters off Oman, and demanded its immediate release.The United States reimposed sanctions on Iran in 2018 after Washington withdrew from Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with six major powers. Under that deal, Iran had agreed to curb its nuclear work in exchange for the lifting of sanctions.Iran has retaliated by bypassing the restrictions of the deal step-by-step. In a move that could complicate efforts by U.S. President-elect Joe Biden to rejoin the deal, Tehran said on Monday it had resumed 20% uranium enrichment at its underground Fordow nuclear facility.British firm Ambrey said the South Korean-flagged vessel, owned by DM Shipping Co, had departed from the Petroleum Chemical Quay in Jubail, in Saudi Arabia, before the incident.Another maritime security firm, Dryad Global, said on its website the chemical tanker had “likely been detained by Iranian forces” in the Strait of Hormuz while inbound to Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates.In early 2019, Iran jacked up tensions in the world’s busiest oil waterway by seizing British-flagged tanker Stena Impero, two weeks after a British warship had intercepted an Iranian tanker off the coast of Gibraltar. - Reuters