Iranian officials said on the 10th that South Korea should avoid “politicizing” the seizure of oil tankers.
According to a press release released on the website of the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Iraqi Vice Foreign Minister Abbas Araghi told the visiting South Korean Foreign Ministry’s first official Choi Jong-jian on the same day: “Avoid politicize the incident, do not use futile public opinion propaganda, and solve it through legal means.”
Aragesh reiterated that the detention of Korean tankers is only related to “technical and environmental pollution”.
Yonhap reported that Choi Jong-kyeong-kyeong’s meeting with Araghi failed to narrow the differences on the 10th. Choi Jong-jian found that Iran’s arrest of the ship was “very improper” and asked Iran to show evidence of the pollution of the ocean by tankers.
At the same time, he said that the South Korean government would work hard to solve the freezing of funds in two Iranian banks in South Korea.
On the 4th, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran detained the tanker Korea Chemical on the 4th on the grounds that the tanker “repetitions of violations of laws and regulations related to the marine environment” were detained in the port of Abbas in southern Iran.
The crew includes five Koreans.
South Korean media believe that Iran’s arrest of the ship is intended to pressure South Korea to unfreeze Iranian assets in South Korea.
Affected by the expansion of U.S. sanctions against Iran, two South Korean banks have frozen about $7 billion in Iranian funds since September 2019.
Iran has repeatedly asked South Korea to unfreeze the above assets. Abdnasir Khmati, the governor of the Central Bank of Iran, has repeatedly mentioned in recent weeks that Iran hopes to withdraw $220 million from its accounts at South Korean banks to buy a coronavirus vaccine.
He said on the 10th: “It’s natural for us to use this money. Hopefully, the pressure from the United States will be reduced.
Iran’s Meihr News Agency reported that officials from the Bank of Korea arrived in Iran together with Choi Jong-kyung-jin and discussed the freezing of assets with Hemati on the 11th.
According to the Iranian Student News Agency, Iranian and Burmese diplomats have met in New Delhi, the capital of India, to discuss the release of 11 Burmese crew members on the tanker.
