South Korean tanker held by Iran over money dispute now on the move

A South Korean oil tanker held for months by Iran amid a dispute over billions of dollars held in Seoul was leaving Iran early Friday.

MarineTraffic.com showed the MT Hankuk Chemi leaving Bandar Abbas in the early morning hours.

Iran did not immediately acknowledge the ship had been freed. South Korea's Foreign Ministry said Iran released the tanker and its captain after seizing the vessel in January over alleged sea pollution. The ministry says the Hankuk Chemi left an Iranian port at around 6 am. local time after completing an administrative process.

Iran had accused the tanker, the MT Hankuk Chemi, of polluting the waters in the crucial Strait of Hormuz. But the seizure was widely seen as an attempt to pressure Seoul to release billions of dollars in Iranian assets tied up in South Korean banks amid heavy American sanctions on Iran.

The development came as Iran and world powers were set to resume negotiations in Vienna on Friday to break the standoff over US sanctions against Iran and Iranian breaches of the nuclear agreement. The 2015 nuclear accord, which then-President Donald Trump abandoned three years later, offered Iran sanctions relief in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear program.

The ship had been travelling from a petrochemicals facility in Jubail, Saudi Arabia, to Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates when armed Revolutionary Guard troops stormed the vessel in January and forced the ship to change course and travel to Iran.