SEOUL (AP) – Armed troops of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard stormed a South Korean oil tanker and forced the ship to change course and travel to Iran, the ship’s owner said on Tuesday, Tehran’s latest sea capture in the middle of tensions with the West over its nuclear program.
The military raid on Monday against MT Hankuk Chemi was at odds with Iranian explanations that stopped the ship for polluting the waters of the Persian Gulf and the Oormuz Strait. Instead, it appeared that the Islamic Republic was trying to increase its leverage over Seoul ahead of negotiations on billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets in South Korean banks amid a US pressure campaign targeting Iran. .
Iran also began enriching uranium by up to 20% on Monday, a small technical step of 90% armament levels, in its underground installation of Fordo. The move was aimed at putting pressure on the United States in the last days of President Donald Trump’s administration, which withdrew unilaterally from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers and before President-elect Joe Biden took office. who said he would be willing to re-enter into the deal.
An official of DM Shipping Co.Ltd. De Busan, South Korea, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity as he was not allowed to speak to reporters, offered details of Hankuk Chemi’s confiscation. The ship was traveling from Jubail, Saudi Arabia, to Fujairah, UAE, when Iranian forces arrived at the ship and said they would embark it.
Initially, Iranian forces said they wanted to conduct an unspecified check on the ship, the official said. While the ship’s captain was talking to company security officials in South Korea, Iranian armed troops stormed the tanker while an Iranian helicopter flew overhead, the official said. Troops demanded the captain navigate the tanker into Iranian waters for an unspecified investigation and refused to explain themselves, the official added.
Since then, the company has been unable to reach the captain, the official said. The security cameras installed on the ship that initially transmitted images at the deck site to the company are now off, the official said.
After the company lost contact with the captain, the company received a security alert warning against piracy, which suggested the captain activate an on-board alert system, the official said. It is not yet clear if the ship tried to ask for outside help.
The fifth U.S. Navy fleet, based in the West, regularly patrols the area along with a U.S.-led coalition that controls the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf where it passes through the 20th. % of world oil. It also operates an independent Europe-led effort.
The official denied that the ship had polluted the waters.
In recent months, Iran has tried to increase pressure on South Korea to unblock 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 looking to use linked funds at a South Korean bank to buy coronavirus vaccines through COVAX, an international program designed to distribute COVID-19 vaccines to participating countries.
The South Korean Foreign Ministry demanded the release of the ship, 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. The South Korean Defense Ministry said it was sending its anti-piracy unit near the Strait of Hormuz, a 4,400-ton class destroyer with about 300 troops.
The U.S. State Department called for the immediate release of the oil tanker, accusing Iran of threatening “freedoms and rights of navigation” in the Persian Gulf to “extort the international community to ease the pressure of sanctions.”
Last year, Iran also seized a British-flagged tanker and held it for months after one of its tankers was arrested off Gibraltar.
The latest incidents coincide with the anniversary of the US drone strike that killed Guard General Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad last January. Iran responded by firing ballistic missiles at U.S. bases in Iraq, wounding dozens of U.S. troops. Tehran also accidentally shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane that night and killed all 176 people on board.
As the anniversary approached and fears of possible Iranian retaliation grew, the United States sent B-52 bombers over the region and ordered a nuclear-powered submarine in the Persian Gulf.
Acting U.S. Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller said Sunday afternoon that he changed his mind about sending the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier home from the Middle East and will 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 detailing it.
Last week, sailors discovered a carpet mine stuck in an oil tanker in the Persian Gulf, near Iraq, near the Iranian border, while preparing to transfer fuel to another oil company owned by a company that it was listed on the New York Stock Exchange. No one has claimed responsibility for placing the mine, although it comes after similar attacks in 2019 near the Hormuz Strait that the U.S. Navy blamed on Iran. Tehran denied their involvement.
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Gambrell reported from Dubai, UAE. Associated Press writers Isabel DeBre in Dubai; Tia Goldenberg in Tel Aviv, Israel; and Robert Burns and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.