{"id":17044,"date":"2021-02-02T13:28:08","date_gmt":"2021-02-02T13:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=157393"},"modified":"2021-02-02T13:28:08","modified_gmt":"2021-02-02T13:28:08","slug":"iran-agrees-to-release-crew-members-of-detained-south-korean-ship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/02\/02\/iran-agrees-to-release-crew-members-of-detained-south-korean-ship\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran Agrees To Release Crew Members of Detained South Korean Ship"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img src=\"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/021ba0a3-2069-4c59-bc1a-33c68049bdc3_w1200_r1.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<div class=\"wsw\">\n<p>Iran has agreed to allow the crew members of a South Korean vessel it seized for allegedly polluting the environment to leave the country,<\/p>\n<p>Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh was <strong><a class=\"wsw__a\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irna.ir\/news\/84208695\/%D8%AE%D8%AF%D9%85%D9%87-%DA%A9%D8%B4%D8%AA%DB%8C-%DA%A9%D8%B1%D9%87-%D8%A7%DB%8C-%D8%A7%D8%AC%D8%A7%D8%B2%D9%87-%D8%AE%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%AC-%D8%A7%D8%B2-%DA%A9%D8%B4%D9%88%D8%B1-%D8%B1%D8%A7-%D8%AF%D8%B1%DB%8C%D8%A7%D9%81%D8%AA-%DA%A9%D8%B1%D8%AF%D9%86%D8%AF\">quoted by state media<\/a><\/strong> on February 2 as saying Tehran was releasing the crew of 20 as a &#8220;humanitarian move.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Following a request by the South Korean government&#8230;the crew of the Korean ship, which was detained on charges of causing environmental pollution in the Persian Gulf, have received permission to leave the country in a humanitarian move by Iran,&#8221; Khatibzadeh said.<\/p>\n<p>The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) seized the South Korean-flagged MT Hankuk Chemi on January 4 and detained its crew near the strategic Strait of Hormuz over pollution violations &#8212; an allegation rejected by the ship&#8217;s operator.<\/p>\n<p>The move came amid tensions over Iranian funds frozen in Seoul because of U.S. sanctions.<\/p>\n<p>The frozen assets stem from oil sales earned before Washington tightened sanctions on Iran following the U.S. withdrawal from a landmark nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers.<\/p>\n<p>The Iranian government has rejected allegations that the seizure of the tanker amounted to hostage taking.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\">This post was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/2021\/02\/02\/iran-agrees-to-release-crew-members-of-detained-south-korean-ship\/\">Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Iran has agreed to allow the crew members of a South Korean vessel it seized for allegedly polluting the environment to leave the country, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,4,23],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17044"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17044"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17044\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17045,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17044\/revisions\/17045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}