Iran steps up nuclear program amid standoff over S. Korea tanker

An undated picture taken in an unknown location and released on January 5, 2021, by Yonhap News Agency in Seoul, shows South Korean Navy destroyer ROKS Choi Young. (AFP)

• US blacklists Chinese company, hits Iran regime with fresh sanctions, as Trump term nears end
• Iran’s Revolutionary Guards seized the South Korean-flagged Hankuk Chemi — which it said was carrying 7,200 tons of “oil chemical products”

TEHRAN: Iran said on Tuesday it had stepped up its uranium enrichment at a time of heightened tensions with the US and after it seized a South Korean tanker in strategic Gulf waters.
A war of words has flared again in the final weeks of Donald Trump’s presidency and as Iran and its allies have marked one year since a US drone strike in Baghdad killed Iran’s most revered military commander, Qasem Soleimani.
Washington has meanwhile reversed an order to bring home its USS Nimitz aircraft carrier from the Gulf, citing “threats” against Trump, after recently also flying B-52 bombers over the region.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has warned it is ready to respond to any attack. On Monday, the Guards seized the South Korean-flagged Hankuk Chemi and arrested its crew of 20 near the Strait of Hormuz.
Seoul said it would send a government delegation to Iran to negotiate the release of the vessel and its crew.
Iran’s move came after Tehran had urged Seoul to release billions of dollars of Iranian assets frozen in South Korea as part of the US sanctions.
“We are not hostage-takers,” said Iran’s government spokesman Ali Rabiei. “It is the government of Korea that has taken over $7 billion of ours hostage on baseless grounds.”
South Korea’s Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong-kun plans to go ahead with a scheduled three-day trip to Tehran early next week, his office said.
Iran first announced on Monday it had stepped up the uranium enrichment process at its underground Fordo site. “We can produce about eight to nine kilograms of 20 percent enriched uranium so that we reach the 120 kilos the law requests from us,” Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said on Tuesday. Iran’s conservative-dominated parliament voted for the step after the November killing of its top nuclear physicist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, an assassination Iran blamed on Israel.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Tehran took the latest enrichment step “after years of noncompliance” by other parties and that “our measures are fully reversible upon full compliance by all.”
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement it “paid tribute to the regular declarations by Iranian leaders of their willingness to return to full respect for the requirements of the agreement.” It added, however, that “additional efforts and costs will now be required to bring the Fordo site in line with the terms of the agreement.”
The US on Tuesday blacklisted a Chinese company that makes elements for steel production, 12 Iranian steel and metals makers and three foreign-based sales agents of a major Iranian metals and mining holding company, seeking to deprive Iran of revenues as Trump’s term winds down.
In a statement, the US Treasury Department named the China-based company as Kaifeng Pingmei New Carbon Materials Technology Co. Ltd. (KFCC), saying it specialized in the manufacture of carbon materials and provided thousands of metric tons of materials to Iranian steel companies between December 2019 and June 2020.
Among the 12 Iranian companies blacklisted are the Pasargad Steel Complex and the Gilan Steel Complex Co, both of which were designated under Executive Order 13871 for operating in the Iranian steel sector.
The others are: Iran-based Middle East Mines and Mineral Industries Development Holding Co. (MIDHCO), Khazar Steel Co, Vian Steel Complex, South Rouhina Steel Complex, Yazd Industrial Constructional Steel Rolling Mill, West Alborz Steel Complex, Esfarayen Industrial Complex, Bonab Steel Industry Complex, Sirjan Iranian Steel and Zarand Iranian Steel Co.
The Treasury said it was also designating MIDHCO’s Germany-based subsidiary GMI Projects Hamburg GmbH, its China-based World Mining Industry Co. Ltd. and UK-based GMI Projects Ltd. for being owned or controlled by MIDHCO.
“The Trump Administration remains committed to denying revenue flowing to the Iranian regime as it continues to sponsor terrorist groups, support oppressive regimes, and seek weapons of mass destruction,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in the statement. Trump’s term ends on Jan. 20, when Democrat President-elect Joe Biden is to be sworn in to succeed him.