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A30 world news
Diaranson 13 Januari 2021
Iran tells SKorea its seized vessel a matter for the courts
(AP) — Iran’s foreign min- recovered resources in other
ister told a visiting South countries, without naming
Korean delegation Mon- any.
day that the release of its
vessel and crew seized by Hemmati said he believed
Iranian forces is a matter the South Korean delegation
for the courts and out of was determined to solve the
the government's hands, problem.
state media reported.
In recent weeks, Hemmati
The development comes has complained that Iran was
amid an escalating financial struggling to transfer some
dispute between the coun- $220 million held in South
tries. Korean banks to pay for CO-
VID-19 vaccines through
The official IRNA news ently seeking to increase its resolve the case,” Iranian South Korean First Vice For- COVAX, an international
agency quoted Mohammad leverage over Seoul ahead of Foreign Ministry spokesman eign Minister Choi Jong-kun program designed to distrib-
Javad Zarif as saying in a South Korea’s pre-scheduled Saeed Khatibzadeh said. He and his delegation arrived in ute coronavirus vaccines to
meeting with South Korea's regional trip, which included said South Korean officials Tehran on Sunday to discuss participating countries.
first vice foreign minister a stop in Qatar. could assign an attorney to the release of the Korean ves-
that the Iranian government handle its case and present sel and the frozen Iranian as- The ship seizure was the lat-
cannot intervene in the case, Zarif on Monday reiterated evidence in court. sets. est in a series of escalations in
which is “under review in the government’s claim that the waning days of the admin-
the legal and judicial frame- the vessel was confiscated Iran maintains the tanker Iranian central bank chief istration of President Don-
work,” he said. by Iran over “environmen- and its 20-member crew Abdolnasser Hemmati said ald Trump, who unilaterally
tal pollution.” But he urged were stopped in the mouth his country would not ac- withdrew the U.S. from Teh-
The South Korean-flagged South Korea to remove the of the Persian Gulf because cept South Korea resorting to ran’s nuclear deal in 2018 and
tanker seizure by Iran’s Rev- restrictions on the Iranian of the vessel’s “environmen- U.S. sanctions as the reason reimposed sanctions that the
olutionary Guard on Jan. 5 in funds, calling the frozen as- tal pollution" but its owner for continuing to hold the agreement had suspended.
the crucial Strait of Hormuz sets the “biggest barrier" to has rejected the claim. The Iranian funds. Iran has ramped up uranium
came as Iranian officials have improving relations between crew, including sailors from enrichment levels at Fordo,
been pressing South Korea the two nations. Indonesia, Myanmar, South “I told the South Korean del- its key underground nuclear
to release some $7 billion in Korea and Vietnam, remain egation that Iran does not facility, bringing the country
assets tied up in the coun- “We have repeatedly told the in custody at the port city of accept their pretexts," said a technical step away from
try’s banks due to American Korean side that politiciz- Bandar Abbas near the Strait Hemmati, according to Ira- weapons-grade purity levels
sanctions. Iran was appar- ing the case would not help of Hormuz. nian media. He said Iran has of 90%.
Russia's prison service seeks to jail Kremlin critic Navalny
(AP) — Russia’s prison agent that he has blamed on At the end of December, the valny in Siberia before he was
service has asked a Mos- the Kremlin, alleged Tuesday The Kremlin has repeatedly Federal Penitentiary Service airlifted to Germany found
cow court to put top that Russian President Vladi- denied a role in the opposi- demanded that Navalny re- no trace of poison and have
Kremlin critic Alexei mir Putin was behind the tion leader's poisoning. port to its office in line with challenged German officials
Navalny behind bars for new legal motion. the terms of a suspended sen- to provide proof of his poi-
breaching the terms of his There was no immediate tence he received for a 2014 soning. They refused to open
suspended sentence and “Putin is so mad at me for comment from the Russian conviction on charges of a full-fledged criminal inqui-
probation. surviving his poisoning that government on the appeal embezzlement and money- ry, citing the lack of evidence
he ordered the Federal Peni- to the Simonovsky District laundering that he rejected that Navalny was poisoned.
Navalny, who is convalesc- tentiary Service to replace my Court posted on the prison as politically motivated. The
ing in Germany from an Au- suspended sentence with a service's website. service warned that he faced Last month, Navalny released
gust poisoning with a nerve real one,” Navalny tweeted. prison time, if he failed to ap- the recording of a phone call
pear. he said he made to a man he
described as an alleged mem-
Navalny says his suspended ber of a group of officers of
sentence ended on Dec. 30. the Federal Security Service,
He also noted the European or FSB, who purportedly
Court for Human Rights had poisoned him in August and
ruled that his 2014 convic- then tried to cover it up. The
tion was unlawful. FSB dismissed the recording
Navalny fell into a coma as fake.
while aboard a domestic flight
from Siberia to Moscow on Navalny’s associates de-
Aug. 20. He was transferred scribed the prison service's
from a hospital in Siberia to a latest move as an attempt
Berlin hospital two days later. by the Kremlin to keep him
from coming back to Russia
Labs in Germany, France and to continue his political ac-
Sweden, and tests by the Or- tivities.
ganization for the Prohibition
of Chemical Weapons, estab- “They seem to be in hyster-
lished that he was exposed to ics wondering what else to
a Soviet-era Novichok nerve do to prevent Navalny from
agent. returning to Russia,” his
spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh
Russian authorities insisted said on Twitter.
that doctors who treated Na-