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DUBAI: Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Monday (January 4) that it had seized a South Korean-flagged tanker in Gulf waters for violating “maritime environmental laws.”
“A South Korean-owned ship was seized by our force’s (navy) this morning,” the Guards said on their Sepahnews website.
“This tanker was heading from the Saudi Arabian port of Al Jubail and was seized due to repeated violation of maritime environmental laws,” he added.
He identified the ship as the South Korean-flagged Hankuk Chemi, which he said was carrying 7,200 tons of “petroleum chemicals.”
News of the seizure comes amid renewed regional tensions, especially as Iran marks the first anniversary of the assassination of its revered commander Qasem Soleimani in a US drone strike in January 2020.
Tehran also announced on Monday that it had started the process to enrich uranium to 20% purity at its underground Fordow facility, state media reported, in a move that generated rapid international concern.
READ: Iran says it resumes 20% uranium enrichment at Fordow site
The seizure of the tanker came at the request of the Hormozgan province maritime organization and on the order of the provincial prosecutor, Sepahnews said.
The arrested crew were from South Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam and Myanmar, the guards said, without elaborating.
A photo posted by the website appeared to show three speedboats and a patrol boat approaching the tanker.
The guards’ statement did not specify where the tanker was seized or transferred.
The British body, UK Maritime Trade Operations, said in a message that there had been “an interaction” in the Strait of Hormuz between a merchant ship and Iranian authorities early Monday morning, prompting the ship to “make a north course alteration. and … in Iranian waters. “
The Fars news agency had previously reported that the ship “has been captured in the waters of the Persian Gulf (…) and transferred to the ports of our country.”
The South Korean Foreign Ministry did not have an immediate comment. The Bahrain-based US Navy Fifth Fleet was aware of and monitoring the situation, spokeswoman Rebecca Rebarich said in response to a Reuters inquiry.
A South Korean-flagged tanker that was seized by Iran. seen in the Gulf, Iran, on January 4, 2021. IRGC / WANA (Western Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
The incident comes ahead of an expected visit by the South Korean deputy foreign minister to Tehran.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry said on Monday that the visit would take place in the coming days and would discuss Iran’s demand that South Korea release $ 7 billion in frozen funds in South Korean banks due to US sanctions.
The United States reimposed sanctions on Iran in 2018 after Washington pulled out of Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with six major powers. Tehran calls the US sanctions an economic war.
READ: Iran says it resumes 20% uranium enrichment at Fordow site
Two maritime security companies previously said that the Hankuk Chemi appeared to have been seized by the Iranian authorities.
British company Ambrey said the South Korean-flagged ship, owned by DM Shipping Co, had sailed from Petroleum Chemical Quay in Jubail, Saudi Arabia, prior to the incident and had since been tracked within Iranian territorial waters heading for Bandar Abbas. .
Another maritime security firm, Dryad Global, said on its website that the chemical tanker “had likely been detained by Iranian forces” in the Strait of Hormuz while en route to Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates.
In early 2019, Iran increased tensions on the world’s busiest oil waterway by seizing the British-flagged tanker Stena Impero two weeks after a British warship intercepted an Iranian tanker off the coast of Gibraltar.
