A South Korean diplomatic delegation has arrived in Iran to negotiate the release of a vessel and its crew seized by Iranian forces amid an escalating financial dispute between the countries.
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The seizure of the South Korean-flagged tanker by Iran's Revolutionary Guard in the Strait of Hormuz came as Iranian officials pressed South Korea to release some $7 billion in assets tied up in the country's banks due to American sanctions.
Iran maintains the tanker and its 20-member crew were stopped in the mouth of the Persian Gulf because of the vessel's 'environmental pollution', a claim rejected by the vessel's owner. The crew, including sailors from Indonesia, Myanmar, South Korea and Vietnam, remain in custody at the port city of Bandar Abbas near the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran's deputy foreign ministry Abbas Araghchi advised South Korea to 'avoid politicising the seizure of oil tanker and stay away from futile propaganda', the ministry's website reported Sunday. Araghchi said the vessel has been captured in the Persian Gulf and the Iranian territorial waters only because of technical considerations and environmental pollution hazards.
South Korea has requested that Iran provide evidence to back up its claim.
The South Korean delegation, including representatives from Seoul's Central Bank, were set on Monday to meet Iran's Central Bank chief Abdolnasser Hemmati to discuss the trapped funds, semi-official Mehr news agency reported. In recent weeks, Hemmati has complained that Iran was struggling to transfer some $220 million held in South Korean banks to pay for COVID-19 vaccines through COVAX, an international program designed to distribute coronavirus vaccines to participating countries.
"It is our natural right to be able to use this money," Hemmati was quoted as saying on Sunday. "We hope that the American pressure will also decrease."
Meanwhile, Araghchi said South Korean banks have illegally blocked Iran's currency resources for nearly two years and a half citing a fear of the US sanctions, "This action, which is only surrender to ransom demand from the US, is not acceptable, and naturally the expansion of relations (between Tehran and Seoul) would be meaningful only when this problem is solved."
The ship seizure was the latest in a series of escalations in the waning days of the administration of President Donald Trump, who unilaterally withdrew the US from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018 and reimposed sanctions that the agreement had suspended. Last week, Iran ramped up uranium enrichment levels at Fordo, its key underground nuclear facility, bringing the country a technical step away from weapons-grade purity levels of 90 per cent.
Australian Associated Press
