First body identified in Iranian tanker accident off China coast
Two ships collided on Saturday night in the waters off the eastern coast of China. The tanker that was involved in the accident belonged to Iran and was chartered by a South Korean company.
According to FCNN news agency: An Iranian oil tanker that collided with a Chinese cargo ship in the East China Sea on Sunday was still burning on Monday morning, a South Korean coast guard official said.
Haghshenas, deputy maritime director of the Ports and Maritime Organization of Iran, announced a few minutes ago: The body found in Chinese waters definitely belongs to one of the Iranian crew members of the tanker. Due to the long distance from the port of Shanghai to the coast, the body has not yet reached this city and is being transferred to the port of Shanghai.
Emphasizing that the most important issue for the Ports and Maritime Organization is to know the health of the Iranian ship's passengers, he said: "This ship entered the port of Assaluyeh on December 13 and left this port on January 25 for South Korea. Its production year is 2008 and it met global safety standards, which shows that this tanker had no safety or technical problems."
The Panamanian-flagged tanker Sanchi was carrying 136,000 tons of Iranian condensate to South Korea. This is equivalent to about one million barrels of condensate worth about $60 million.
A Chinese cargo ship carrying American grain suffered minor damage and its 21 crew members, all Chinese nationals, were rescued.
The extent of the environmental damage and the extent of the oil spill into the sea are still unknown, but given the tonnage of oil the tanker was carrying, this is likely to be the worst pollution since 1991, when 260,000 tons of oil spilled into the sea off the coast of Angola.
We hope that this incident and its heavy human and financial losses will not be used to project and change the mental direction of the worried and affected Iranian society regarding these recent issues and their rightful protests. Because the Islamic Republic's record in this regard is very clear and brilliant, and they easily resort to such actions to change the atmosphere of opposition to them and to cover up their crimes.
