South Korea is sending military forces to respond to the seizure of one of its tankers by Iran, an attempt to cooperate with other countries working in the region.
Iran’s elite revolutionary guard announced on Monday that its Zulfiqar fleet had seized a South Korean vessel operating in the Islamic Republic’s first naval district in the Persian Gulf “due to a series of violations of marine environmental laws” after leaving Saudi Arabia’s Al-Jubail port has departed. .
The ship, Hankuk Chemi, allegedly transported up to 7,200 tons of oil-based chemicals and transported a crew of South Korean, Indonesian, Vietnamese and Myanmar nationals. Both ship members and crew members are being held at Bandar Abbas port in Iran, where the revolutionary guard said judicial officials should deal with the issue.
In response to the incident, a South Korean Ministry of Defense said Newsweek the country, officially known as the Republic of Korea (ROK), sent “anti-piracy troops near the Strait of Hormuz for the ROK oil tanker directly.”
On whether South Korea will seek support from the International Maritime Security Construct, a US coalition of at least nine countries designed to prevent sabotage and prevent Iran from taking international ships to a peaceful 2019 near the Strait of Hormuz, the official said Seoul was seeking “close co-operation with the ROC government and multinational anti-piracy.”
The Strait of Hormuz is the world’s most important sea point for oil traffic and a recurring hotspot for tensions and threats between America and Iran that have increased sharply since Donald Trump took office in 2017.
US Navy 5th Fleet did not respond immediately Newsweekis for comment.
The US and South Korea are military allies and although their mutual defense is set up to fend off attacks from rival North Korea, it obliges each to come to the aid of the other in the event of an ‘external armed attack’.
Republic of Korea Navy
Concern over possible escalations in the Persian Gulf this weekend in particular killed a year-long commemoration of the US assassination of Quds Force opposition commander Major General Qassem Soleimani in Iraq.
Iran’s permanent mission to United Nations spokeswoman Alireza Miryousefi recently condemned the assassination of the influential and controversial Iranian military leader last year as something almost universally condemned as an illegal and terrorist act (even by US allies). ‘. He added that “it has not affected Iran’s national security policy.”
“What he has done illustrates the world’s true nature of government with international law and norms, and the desperation he feels in the inability to bring Iran to its knees,” he said. Newsweek. “Iran has endured Trump and his allies and will continue its foreign and security policy as always.”
Miryousefi added a warning.
“It seems that the US is placing traps or provocations to offer an excuse to start armed conflict in the last days of government,” he said. “Iran is fully prepared to defend itself and will, if that happens, respond openly and decisively.”
The U.S. military has twice fired nuclear-powered B-52 bombers over the Middle East in recent weeks in a show of force against the Islamic Republic, accusing Trump of plotting to attack U.S. interests following a rocket attack. which was the Washington embassy in Baghdad last month.
The US leader has just over two weeks left in office, but has refused to acknowledge the election victory of his rival, President-elect Joe Biden, which indicated a more diplomatic approach to Iran. Uncertainty over Trump’s actions has spread worldwide, and friends and foes have been closely watching US movements.
The USS Nimitz Aircraft carrier plans to leave the region but is suddenly ordered to stay due to “the recent threats issued by Iranian leaders against President Trump and other US government officials”, according to a statement issued by Chris Miller, acting Secretary of Defense, on Sunday. issued. “No one should doubt the intent of the United States of America,” he added.
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The South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs has requested that Hankuk Chemi, the latest international ship seized by the Revolutionary Guard, be released earlier. History has maintained foreign vessels that are deemed to endanger seafaring or violate rules near or within the critical crossing.
Saeed Khatibzadeh, spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, said further information on the incident would be released soon, but claimed the case was purely technical and related to the contamination of the waterway by the vessel.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran, like other countries, is sensitive to such violations, especially pollution of the marine environment, so it will be dealt with within the framework of the law,” Khatibzadeh said. “This incident is not exceptional and has occurred in similar previous cases in Iran and the waters of other countries, and is normal.”
The incident took place just as Kang Kyung-wha, South Korea’s Foreign Minister, was traveling to Tehran.
South Korea was one of Iran’s leading oil buyers ahead of sanctions imposed by the Trump administration following the unilateral withdrawal of the US from a 2015 nuclear deal in 2018. Officials in Tehran have since called on Seoul for billions of dollars To freeze Iranian assets frozen. by South Korea because of its compliance with US sanctions, although South Korea has so far refused despite successive meetings on the issue.
Iran also enjoys friendly ties with North Korea, another US-approved state with which South Korea has struggled to improve relations amid an unprecedented peace process that began when Washington signed the two-nation Iran agreement. left half a year ago.