Iran stops a South Korean oil tanker in the Gulf

The waters of the Gulf have witnessed a new international conflict, this time between Iran and South Korea. Several Iranian media have announced that the National Guard navy has captured a South Korean oil tanker "for polluting the Gulf with chemicals".

The spokesman for the Iranian foreign ministry, Saeed Khatibzadeh, confirmed that "according to initial reports from local officials, this is a purely technical matter and the ship was taken to shore for polluting the sea".

Seoul, for its part, has confirmed the seizure of this vessel carrying chemicals from the Asian country by the Iranian authorities in Omani waters and has demanded its immediate release.

The Navy of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps stressed that "the tanker Hankuk Chemi, which was carrying 7,200 tonnes of oil-based chemicals, had repeatedly violated environmental protocols since it left the Saudi port of Al-Jobail".

The detained crew members were nationals of South Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam and Myanmar. The tanker is being held in the Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas.

This incident comes shortly before the expected visit of the South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister to Tehran and at a time of growing tension between the two countries over Iranian funds frozen in South Korean banks due to US sanctions.

It is estimated that $7 billion in Iranian funds are currently deposited in two South Korean banks. The assets have been frozen since September 2019, when an exemption granted by the United States for Iranian oil imports expired.

The funds frozen in the South Korean banks were being used to pay for oil imports from Iran into the Asian country and the export of goods to Iran. The payment mechanism between the two countries stopped when Washington terminated the exemption granted to Iranian oil exports to South Korea.

The visit of South Korea's deputy foreign minister to Tehran is intended to provide a solution to the blockade of these funds. Khatibzadeh said the visit would take place in the coming days, during which officials would discuss Iran's demand that South Korea release $7 billion in frozen funds.

Since the United States' exit from the nuclear pact and the imposition of new sanctions on the Islamic Republic, Iran has used the Gulf Stream as a tool to "hinder" the passage of goods and carry out attacks, on one of the world's busiest shipping lanes.

In 2019, Iran intercepted a British tanker, the Stena Impero, two weeks after a British warship seized an Iranian vessel on suspicion of moving a cargo of crude oil destined for a refinery in Syria.