Threatening to avenge the death on the one-year-anniversary of Al-Qud’s chief Qassem Soleimani’s Jan. 3, 2020. Iran made good on its promise seizing a South Korean oil tanker in the Persian Gulf. Knowing 74-year-old President Donald Trump is out the door in just over two weeks, Iran hijacked the South Korean tanker, knowing the close relationship to the United States. South Korea, a close U.S. ally, frozen $7 billion in Iranian funds over new U.S. sanctions since Trump cancelled the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action [JCPOA] May 8, 2018, applying new sanctions on Tehran for its proxy wars in Saudi Arabia and Israel. U.S. hasn’t had diplomatic relations with Iran since Nov. 4, 1979, when Iranian radicals seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran, taking 252 hostages for 444 days during the Iranian Revolution. Let there be no mistake, seizing the South Korean tanker was an attack on a U.S. ally.
Trump has limited options on his way out of the White House, leaving President-elect Joe Biden with a new challenge if the situation doesn’t resolve itself in the next few weeks. Iran’s 81-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei promised to avenge the death of Soleimani, jumping on an opportunity to attack a U.S. ally. Captured by Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards operating with armed speed boats in the Persian Gulf, Iran harassed U.S. navy vessels for years until Trump became president Jan. 20, 2017. Khamenei knew, over the last four years, Trump was the wrong U.S. leader to challenge, waiting until he was nearly out. “According to initial reports by local officials, it is purely a technical matter and the ship was taken to shore for polluting the sea,” said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh, giving a lame excuse for hijacking a sovereign vessel.
Publishing pictures of the Korean-flagged tanker with it detained crew, Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim news agency spread the news targeting the White House. Iran wants its frozen assets held by South Korea, creating the latest hostage-taking situation. It wasn’t that long ago when Iran seized Jan. 12, 2016 twp U.S. Navy riverine command boats in the Persian Gulf near Farsi Island, humiliating the U.S. crew on Iranian TV. While the incident was resolved in 15 hours because of intense diplomacy, the damage was done. Former President Barack Obama had just completed negotiations on the JCPOA July 15, 2015, using Iran’s 60-year-old Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif to resolve the crisis. Today’s hijacking of South Korea’s Hankuk Chemi, carrying 7,200 tons of ethanol, presents new challenges if Iran doesn’t release the ship before Biden’s sworn in Jan. 20.
South Korea’s deputy foreign minister was due to visit Tehran in coming days, giving the discussions extra meaning, especially with the Ayatollah demanding that South Korea release $7 billion in frozen Iranian assets. Recent reports of Iran ramping up uranium enrichment at its highly fortified Fordo nuclear plant to 20% raised tensions in the Gulf, knowing that Iran was already out of compliance with the JCPOA. Iran’s decision to ramp up uranium enrichment was a way of exacting concession from Biden when he takes office. Biden has already signaled he wants to rejoin the JCPOA after taking office. Iran’s seizure of the South Korean flagged Kankuk Chemi tanker had nothing to do with suspected pollution in the Persian Gulf. Iran wants its frozen assets released and is willing to commit any crime on the high seas or anywhere else to take revenge on the United States.
Iran acted swiftly to seize the Korean tanker knowing the Pentagon was not in a place to take actions, especially for a U.S. ally. Had Iran seized a U.S. vessel it might have been a different story, since the U.S. Navy’s Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet is ready to act quickly to any Iranian provocation. Seizing the South Korean tanker in advance of its meeting with the South Korean deputy foreign minister, Iran hopes to bypass U.S. intervention and squeeze cash out of Seoul. Whether Seoul capitulates to Iranian demands is anyone’s guess but Iran picked an easy target in the narrow Strait of Hormuz where Iran’s swift boats usually patrol international waters. When the two U.S. Navy patrol boats were seized in 2016, Iran insisted they strayed into Iran’s territorial waters near Farsi Island. Whether admitted to or not, the hijacking was timed to Soleimani’s one-year anniversary.
Without some kind of assurance that Iran stops its uranium enrichment program, it’s going to be difficult for Biden to rejoin the JCPOA. Seizing the Hankuk Chemi, holding the tanker hostage in Iran’s Bandar Abbas port city, was directly linked to the one year anniversary of the U.S. predator drone killing of Al-Quds’ chief Qassem Soleimani. While seeming unrelated, the Korean tanker hijacking gives Iran the same kind of leverage as Somali pirates, known for seizing ships and exacting big ransoms in return. Iran’s latest move shows the world, including the P5+1 [U.S, U.K., France, Russia, China and Germany] that the JCPOA is all but dead. Whether you can get Iran back into compliance on uranium enrichment, the rogue Persian regime cannot be trusted to meet its obligations. Iran remains for all to see that it’s a rogue nation, not trusted for international agreements.
