DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – Iranian state television has acknowledged that Tehran has seized a South Korean flag tanker in the Strait of Hormuz.
The report on Monday claimed that MT Hankuk Chemi was stopped by Iranian authorities because of the alleged “oil pollution” in the Persian Gulf and in the strait.
The semi-official Fars news agency said Iran’s Revolutionary Guard naval forces seized the ship.
Satellite data from MarineTraffic.com showed MT Hankuk Chemi off the port of Bandar Abbas on Monday afternoon without explanation. He was traveling from Saudi Arabia to Fujairah, in the United Arab Emirates. The ship’s owners could not be reached immediately for comment.
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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – Iran on Monday began enriching uranium by up to 20% in an underground facility, a short technical step in terms of armament levels, as fears heightened that a South American oil tanker increased. had been seized by Tehran in the crucial Strait of Hormuz.
The announcement of enrichment in Fordo came at the same time that Western officials feared that MT Hankuk Chemi had been seized.
It comes amid rising tensions between Iran and the United States in the last days of President Donald Trump’s term, who saw the US leader unilaterally withdraw from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers and trigger months of mounting incidents between two countries.
Iranian state television quoted spokesman Ali Rabiei as saying that President Hassan Rouhani gave the order for the move to Fordo’s premises.
Iran’s decision to start enriching to 20% a decade ago almost brought an Israeli attack on its nuclear facilities, tensions that only eased with the 2015 atomic deal. A resumption of 20% enrichment could bring a return to temerity.
Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers in 2018. Since then, there have been a series of growing incidents between the two countries.
Iran’s decision comes after its parliament passed a bill, later approved by a constitutional body, with the aim of increasing enrichment to pressure Europe to provide relief from sanctions. It also serves as pressure before the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, who said he was willing to enter the nuclear deal again.
Iran informed the International Atomic Energy Agency last week that it planned to take this step. The IAEA said Monday that “the agency’s inspectors have been monitoring activities” in Fordo and that its director general Rafael Mariano Grossi planned to issue a report to member countries of the UN organization later in the day.
Meanwhile, satellite data from MarineTraffic.com showed MT Hankuk Chemi off Bandar Abbas on Monday afternoon, with no explanation as to the change in the ship’s path. He was traveling from Saudi Arabia to Fujairah, in the United Arab Emirates.
Calls to South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the listed owner of the ship, DM Shipping Co. Ltd. of Busan, South Korea, were not answered immediately after Monday’s business hours. Iran did not recognize the ship’s location.
UK Maritime Trade Operations, an exchange of information supervised by the British Royal Navy in the region, recognized an “interaction” between a merchant ship and the Iranian authorities in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20% of all the oil in the world passes.
As a result, the UKMTO said that the merchant vessel made a “course change” to the north in Iran’s territorial waters.
Commander Rebecca Rebarich, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, said officials were aware of and monitoring the situation.
Ambrey, a British security company, reported the incident as an apparent seizure. Dryad Global, another maritime security company, said the ship’s crew was 23 sailors from Indonesia and Myanmar.
Iran’s announcement coincides with the anniversary of the U.S. drone attack killing Revolutionary Guard general Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad last year. That attack later saw Iran retaliate by launching a ballistic missile attack, injuring dozens of US soldiers in Iraq. Tehran also accidentally shot down a Ukrainian passenger jet that night, killing all 176 people on board.
As the anniversary approached, the United States sent B-52 bombers flying over the region and sent a nuclear-powered submarine to the Persian Gulf.
On Thursday, sailors discovered a lapa mine on a tanker in the Persian Gulf, near the Iran border, near the Iran border, while preparing to transfer fuel to another company-owned tanker. traded on the New York Stock Exchange. No one has taken responsibility for mining, although it comes after a series of similar attacks in 2019 near the Strait of Hormuz, which the U.S. Navy attributed to Iran. Tehran denied being involved.
In November, an Iranian scientist who founded the country’s military nuclear program two decades earlier was killed in an attack that Tehran attributes to Israel.
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Associated Press writer Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul contributed to this report.
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