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Iran Admits Seizing South Korean-Flagged Oil Tanker

RFE/RL

   Iranian state television has acknowledged that Tehran seized a South
   Korean-flagged oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz.

   The report on Monday alleged that the MT Hankuk Chemi had been stopped
   by Iranian authorities over alleged "oil pollution" in the Persian Gulf
   and the strait.

   The semiofficial Fars news agency said the naval forces of Iran's
   Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had seized the ship.

   Satellite data from MarineTraffic.com showed the MT Hankuk Chemi off
   the port of Bandar Abbas on January 4 without explanation. It had been
   traveling from Saudi Arabia to Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates.

   The ship's owners could not be immediately reached for comment.

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