{"id":92515,"date":"2021-02-03T08:13:47","date_gmt":"2021-02-03T13:13:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/?p=92515"},"modified":"2021-02-03T08:13:47","modified_gmt":"2021-02-03T13:13:47","slug":"auto-draft-478","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/2021\/02\/03\/auto-draft-478\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran Releases South Korean-Flagged Tanker Crew"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Iran has released 19 crew members and the captain of a South Korean tanker that was seized in the Persian Gulf last month, Iranian state TV announced Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The South Korean-flagged MT Hankuk Chemi<\/em>, whose crew included sailors from Indonesia, Myanmar, South Korea and Vietnam, has been in custody at the port city of Bandar Abbas, near the Strait of Hormuz, since January 5.<\/p>\n

Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said a legal investigation into the tanker would continue, although some see the apprehension as a move by Tehran to gain leverage over Seoul. The decision came after the two governments held talks over billions in frozen Iranian assets.<\/p>\n

Last month, South Korean Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Choi Jong Kun visited Iran to discuss the crew\u2019s release, as well as some $7 billion in Iranian assets from oil sales frozen in South Korea due to U.S. sanctions.<\/p>\n

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\"In<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>
In this photo released by the Iranian Foreign Ministry, South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong Kun, center left, speaks with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, center right, during their meeting in Tehran, Jan. 11, 2021.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A South Korean statement said the country learned of Iran\u2019s plans to release the crew during a phone call Tuesday between Choi and his Iranian counterpart Seyyed Abbas Araghchi.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe two vice foreign ministers said their governments took an important, first step toward restoring confidence between South Korea and Iran,\u201d the statement said. \u201cThey agreed to restore their countries\u2019 traditional, friendly ties of supporting each other when they face difficulties by resolving the issue of the frozen fund.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is not the first instance of a ship apprehension by Iran. Last year, the country similarly apprehended a British-flagged oil tanker near Gibraltar, which it held for months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Iran has released 19 crew members and the captain of a South Korean tanker that was seized in the Persian Gulf last month, Iranian state TV announced Tuesday. The South Korean-flagged MT Hankuk Chemi, whose crew included sailors from Indonesia, Myanmar, South Korea and Vietnam, has been in custody at the port city of Bandar […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":92516,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-recposts"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.2","language":"en","enabled_languages":["fa","en"],"languages":{"fa":{"title":true,"content":false,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92515"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92518,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92515\/revisions\/92518"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}