DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (PA) – A South Korean oil tanker held by Iran for months amid a billion-dollar dispute seized by Seoul was released and sailed early Friday just hours before talks between Tehran and the world powers raged nuclear deal.
MarineTraffic.com data showed that MT Hankuk Chemi was leaving Bandar Abbas in the early hours of the morning. By Friday afternoon, he was off the east coast of the United Arab Emirates, having passed safely through the Strait of Hormuz.
South Korea’s foreign ministry said Iran had released the oil tanker and its captain after capturing the ship in January. The ministry says Hankuk Chemi left an Iranian port around 6:00 a.m. local time after completing an administrative process.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh later confirmed that Iran had released the ship.
“At the request of the owner and the Korean government, the order to release the ship was issued by the prosecutor,” Khatibzadeh was quoted as saying by the state-run IRNA news agency.
The owner of the ship, DM Shipping Co. Ltd. in Busan, South Korea, could not be reached immediately for comments.
Hankuk Chemi had been traveling from a petrochemical plant in Jubail, Saudi Arabia, to Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates, when Revolutionary Guard troops stormed the ship in January and forced the ship to change course and travel to Iran.
Iran has accused MT Hankuk Chemi of polluting the waters of the crucial Strait of Hormuz. But the seizure has been widely seen as an attempt to pressure Seoul to release about $ 7 billion in Iranian assets linked to South Korean banks amid heavy US sanctions on Iran. Iran released the 20-member crew in February, but continued to detain the ship and its captain, while urging South Korea to unblock frozen Iranian assets.
Iran’s foreign ministry did not acknowledge the fund’s dispute when it announced the ship’s release, with Khatibzadeh saying only that the captain and the oil tanker had clear records in the region.
But a South Korean Foreign Ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity under the regulations, said Seoul’s desire to resolve the issue of Iranian assets linked to South Korea “had a possible positive influence” on Iran’s decision to free ship.
The official said Iran acknowledged South Korea’s attempts to resolve the dispute, as it became clear that the issue was not just about South Korea’s capacity and efforts and was “intertwined” with negotiations on a return to Tehran’s founding nuclear deal. .
The thawing of funds involves the agreement of various countries, including the US, which in 2018 imposed radical sanctions on Iran’s oil and banking sectors. The official said South Korea had communicated closely with other countries on frozen Iranian assets.
In January, the UN said Iran occupied a list of countries that owe money to the world body with a minimum bill of more than $ 16 million. If not paid, Iran could lose its voting rights, according to the provisions of the UN Charter.
“We expect to make considerable progress in paying UN taxes,” a South Korean foreign ministry official was quoted as saying by the country’s Yonhap news agency. “We have also exported about $ 30 million worth of medical equipment since resuming humanitarian trade with Iran in April last year.”
Iran later said it expected South Korean Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun to travel to Tehran for a two-day visit on Sunday. Yonhap said the trip would be the first visit by a South Korean prime minister to Iran in 44 years – before the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran. Chung previously visited Iran in August 2017 as a then-speaker of the National Assembly.
The development came as Iran and world powers were due to resume negotiations in Vienna on Friday to end the clash over US sanctions against Iran and Iranian violations of the nuclear deal. The 2015 nuclear deal, which then-President Donald Trump abandoned three years later, offered Iran exemptions in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear program.
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Associated Press writers Kim Tong-hyung of Seoul and Amir Vahdat of Tehran, Iran, contributed to the report.