SEOUL (AP) – Armed troops from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard raided a South Korean tanker and forced the ship to change course and travel to Iran, the ship’s owner said on Tuesday, the latest maritime seizure by Tehran on Tuesday. amid increased tensions with the West over its nuclear program.
The military attack on Monday at Mt Hankuk Chemi contradicts Iranian explanations that they stopped the ship for polluting the waters of the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz. Instead, it appeared that the Islamic Republic was looking to increase its influence over Seoul before negotiations on billions of dollars in Iranian assets frozen in South Korean banks amid a US pressure campaign targeting Iran.
Iran on Monday also started enriching uranium by up to 20%, a small technical step away from the 90% armament grade levels in its underground Fordo facility. This move appeared to be aimed at putting pressure on the United States in the final days of President Donald Trump’s government, which unilaterally withdrew from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers, and before President-elect Joe Biden took office, who said he was willing to enter again in the agreement.
An official at DM Shipping Co. Ltd. in Busan, South Korea, who spoke to the Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to journalists, gave details of the seizure of Hankuk Chemi. The ship was traveling from Jubail, Saudi Arabia, to Fujairah, United Arab Emirates, when Iranian forces arrived on the ship and said they would board it.
Initially, Iranian forces said they wanted to do an unspecified check on the ship, the official said. While the ship’s captain spoke to company security officials in South Korea, armed Iranian troops stormed the tank while an Iranian helicopter flew over, the official said. The troops demanded that the captain drive the tanker into Iranian waters because of an unspecified investigation and refused to explain, the official added.
Since then, the company has been unable to contact the captain, the official said. The security cameras installed on the ship that initially transmitted images of the scene on deck to the company are now turned off, the official said.
After the company lost contact with the captain, the company received an anti-piracy security alert, suggesting that the captain activated an on-board alert system, the official said. It is not yet clear whether the ship tried to call for outside help.
The 5th Fleet, based in the US Navy’s Middle East, routinely patrols the area along with an American-led coalition that monitors the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf where 20% of the world’s oil passes. A separate Europe-led effort also operates there.
The official denied that the vessel is polluting the waters.
In recent months, Iran has tried to increase pressure on South Korea to unlock some $ 7 billion in frozen assets from oil sales obtained before the Trump administration tightened sanctions on the country’s oil exports.
The head of Iran’s central bank recently announced that the country was trying to use funds tied to a South Korean bank to buy coronavirus vaccines through COVAX, an international program designed to distribute COVID-19 vaccines to participating countries.
South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs demanded the ship’s release, saying in a statement that its crew was safe. The crew included sailors from Indonesia, Myanmar, South Korea and Vietnam, according to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. South Korea’s Ministry of Defense said it was sending its anti-piracy unit close to the Strait of Hormuz – a 4,400-ton destroyer with about 300 soldiers.
The United States Department of State called for the immediate release of the oil tanker, accusing Iran of threatening “rights and freedoms of navigation” in the Persian Gulf to “extort the international community to ease the pressure of sanctions”.
Last year, Iran similarly seized a British-flagged oil tanker and held it for months after one of its tankers was detained off Gibraltar.
The latest incidents coincide with the anniversary of the US drone attack that killed General Guard Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad last January. Iran responded by launching ballistic missiles at American bases in Iraq, injuring dozens of American soldiers. Tehran also accidentally shot down a Ukrainian passenger jet that same night, killing all 176 people on board.
As the anniversary approached and fears of possible Iranian retaliation grew, the United States dispatched B-52 bombers over the region and ordered a nuclear-powered submarine to crash into the Persian Gulf.
US Defense Secretary Christopher Miller said on Sunday that he had changed his mind about sending the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier from the Middle East home and would instead keep the ship in service. He cited Iranian threats against Trump and other U.S. government officials as the reason for the redistribution, without going into details.
Last week, sailors discovered a limpet mine attached to a tanker in the Persian Gulf, near the border with Iran, as it prepared to transfer fuel to another tanker owned by a company listed on the New York Stock Exchange. York. No one has claimed responsibility for the mine’s location, although it comes after similar attacks in 2019 near the Strait of Hormuz, which the U.S. Navy attributed to Iran. Tehran has denied involvement.
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Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writer Isabel DeBre in Dubai; Aunt Goldenberg in Tel Aviv, Israel; and Robert Burns and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.