The Revolutionary Guards, the ideological army of the Islamic Republic of Iran, on Monday (January 4th) seized a South Korean-flagged tanker in Gulf waters, accusing it of violating "
environmental laws. sailor,
”according to their official website.
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"
A ship owned by South Korea was seized this morning by the (navy) force
" of the Guardians, it is indicated on their official Sepahnews website, in a context of growing tensions in the Gulf between Tehran and Washington.
Sepahnews reports the arrest of crew members of South Korean, Indonesian, Vietnamese and Myanmar nationalities, without further details.
"
This tanker had left the port of Al-Jubail in Saudi Arabia and was seized for repeated violation of the laws on the marine environment
", adds the same source.
Sepahnews writes that the vessel flies the South Korean flag and bears the name "
Hankuk Chemi
", specifying that it was carrying 7,200 tonnes of "
petroleum chemicals
".
Sepahnews does not specify where the tanker was seized or to what location it was transferred.
The Fars agency had previously indicated that the vessel had "
been seized in Gulf waters (...) and transferred to the country's ports
".
In July 2019, the Guardians seized the British flagged oil tanker Stena Impero in the strategic Strait of Hormuz before releasing it two months later.
They had seized at least six other ships the same year in a context of heightened tensions between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States, in particular around the international agreement on the Iranian nuclear of 2015, unilaterally denounced by Donald Trump in May 2018.