Iran says Sinokor vessels face legal action; South Korean shipowners deny link

DUBAI, Oct 27 (Reuters) – Iran’s Persian Gulf Strait Authority, a body set up by Tehran to manage passage requests in the Strait of Hormuz, said on Tuesday all vessels belonging to South Korean shipping company Sinokor would face “legal action” starting on November 1.

Tehran has sought to tighten its grip on the strategic waterway by attacking shipping there since ​US and Israeli ⁠airstrikes on Iran on February 28. It has restricted transit to try to gain leverage over Washington, while disrupting oil flows from Arab Gulf oil producers, especially to their customers in Asia.

The authority said on X that Sinokor vessels had committed the highest number of crossing violations in the strait over the past three months, and “appropriate actions” had been taken against at least seven of them.

The Korea Shipowners’ Association said on Wednesday the vessels in question were not owned by Sinokor but had been sub-chartered to an overseas oil company, and had no South Korean crew, with only foreign seafarers on board.

The association said it had confirmed this through a Sinokor official.

Sinokor was unaware of the authority’s separate warning of legal action and was checking the details, the association said.

Ships owned by Sinokor were previously included on a list issued by Iran in August of 45 tankers that it said had broken its rules for crossing the Strait of Hormuz.

In response to Iranian attacks, the United States also imposed a naval blockade ​against ships linked to the Islamic Republic in the strait.

While the blockade has all but choked off Iranian exports, Gulf producers have adapted to attacks on shipping by relying on so-called dark transits — switching off tankers’ tracking ​systems to evade detection — to protect the oil flows that underpin their economies.

(Reporting by Elwely Elwelly and Joyce Lee, Writing by Emily Giles, Editing by Andrew Heavens, Timothy Heritage and Ed Davies)