Iran seizes South Korean oil tanker amid rising tensions with the US

Amid the rising tensions between Iran and the US, a South Korean-flagged oil tanker has been seized by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards for “polluting the Persian Gulf with chemicals”. According to Bloomberg, Iran seized the tanker on January 4 in the crucial Strait of Hormuz. Tehran acknowledged the seizure of the MT Hankuk Chemi and the Iranian news agencies informed that the vessel’s crew members, including nationals of South Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Myanmar, had been detained. 

The tanker is being held at Iran’s Bandar Abbas port city. South Korea’s foreign ministry has demanded the vessel’s immediate release and said that its forces stationed in the Strait of Hormuz had been dispatched to the area. Hours before seizing the vessel, Tehran had also said that a South Korean diplomat was due to travel there to negotiate over billions of dollars in its assets now frozen in Seoul. 

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The vessel was carrying 7,200 tons of petrochemicals from Jubail in Saudi Arabia when it was intercepted. Relations between Iran and Seoul have been strained since the US reimposed tough sanctions on Iran and banned countries, including major Asian customers, from buying its petroleum. Iran has said that it has at least $7 billion from oil sales trapped in South Korea and the funds are needed to purchase humanitarian goods, including coronavirus vaccine. 

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Iran starts 20% uranium enrichment 

The vessel seizure comes after an announcement by Iran that it would start enriching uranium to 20%, which is in violation of the nuclear deal. The move, which Iran had notified the UN nuclear watchdog about last week, was one of many mentioned in a law passed by Iran’s parliament last month in response to the killing of the country’s top nuclear scientist. Although the purity level needed to produce nuclear weapons is 90%, way above Iran's announcement of enriching uranium to up to 20% purity, the decision has caused a stir among other signatories of the deal. 

Under the JCPOA deal, Iran is not allowed to enrich uranium with over 4% purity level. However, the Islamic Republic has been violating the deal since 2019 after the United States reimposed sanctions on Tehran. The cap on enrichment matters because it will extend the time needed to develop a nuclear weapon. Iran was already enriching uranium to up to 20% purity before the signing of the nuclear agreement with the US and other members of the UN Security Council, including Germany. 

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