Iranian Coast Guard forces, along with Revolutionary Guards personnel, took control of a South Korean oil tanker in the Persian Gulf today (Monday), the Iranian news agency Tassanim reported.
According to the report, Iranian forces boarded the tanker, which returned its 20 crew members and sailed it to the port of Bender Abbas in southern Iran. According to Iranian authorities, the operation was carried out because the oil tanker “polluted the Gulf waters with banned chemicals.”
The Reuters news agency claims that what is behind the Iranian operation is not a concern for the environment, but an attempt to put pressure on Seoul to release nearly seven billion Iranian-owned Iran, which are frozen in the country’s banks due to US sanctions on Tehran.
This week, the South Korean deputy prime minister is expected to visit Tehran, and the Iranians want to engage, among other things, in thawing the funds held in South Korea. Seoul has so far refused to discuss the issue with the Tehran authorities. The Fifth US Navy, based in Bahrain, told Reuters they were following developments.
South Korea was furious at the Iranian operation and demanded that Tehran immediately release the crew and ship. A South Korean Foreign Ministry statement said a naval robbery force had been sent to the area of the incident.
Earlier, the Atomic Energy Agency announced that Iran had indeed begun enriching uranium to a level of 20 percent, a degree considered borderline for the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons. Iran itself announced this morning that it has begun increased enrichment at the Frodo underground facility.