THE Iranian Government accused South Korea yesterday of holding US$7 billion of its money “hostage” in its banks, a day after its revolutionary guards stormed and captured a Korean tanker in the Persian Gulf.

The tanker, the MT Hankuk Chemi, was seized Tuesday and escorted to an Iranian port under the pretext that it was causing pollution in the Strait of Hormuz, according to Iranian officials.

But the ship’s owners have denied this and revealed the tanker was boarded by armed marines from the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), suggesting that Tehran intends to use it as leverage in a dispute with Seoul over frozen Iranian assets.

Ali Rabiei, a spokesman for the Iranian Government, denied accusations of “hostage diplomacy” over the capture of the ship, which was carrying a cargo of 7,200 tons of ethanol from Saudi Arabia to the United Arab Emirates when it was intercepted by IRGC speedboats and a helicopter off the coast of Oman.

Tehran has previously accused South Korea of being a “lackey” of the United States and demanded it release the money, which it says it is owed from oil sales made before the Trump administration tightened sanctions on the Islamic republic. The head of Iran’s central bank has argued that it needs the money to purchase coronavirus vaccines, and should be exempt from sanctions.

An anti-piracy destroyer of the South Korean Navy has arrived in the Gulf with 300 troops aboard in response to the seizure of the tanker and the arrest of its crew from South Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam and Myanmar. The foreign ministry in Seoul demanded the vessel’s release, but insisted it would seek a diplomatic solution to the crisis.(SD-Agencies)