Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lim Su-seok answers questions from reporters about the recruitment of the Iranian ambassador to Korea during a regular briefing held in the briefing room of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the 19th. [사진=연합뉴스]
On the 20th, CBS Radio’s ‘Kim Hyun-jung’s News Show’, Lee Hee-soo, a Middle East expert and chair professor at the Institute of Islamic Culture at Sungkonghoe University, said, “We need to make efforts to turn a crisis into an opportunity by sending a high-level special envoy.” It seems to be getting better, and the highest-ranking person is getting better,” he said.
Iran recently summoned the Korean ambassador to Iran to protest, and we also confronted the Iranian ambassador to Korea. Subsequently, Iranian local media, such as Qianji, are even raising claims to block the strait, saying, “It is possible to block the passage of Korean ships in the Strait of Hormuz.”
According to chair professor Lee, Iran was at a point where the atmosphere of reconciliation was heating up before the remarks after having distanced themselves from the UAE for reasons such as religious routes.
Also, Korea was the best country for Iran. In Iran, we are the first country to enter Iran as an oil trading region and the world’s 10th largest economy, and for us, Iran is the most popular region in the Middle East for the Korean wave, and a country visited by a Korean representative (president) as a state guest.
However, President Yoon’s remarks explicitly expressed the UAE’s enemy as Iran, fueling their hostile relationship.
South Korea is the second largest importer of crude oil from Iran, and a situation in which Korean companies have not paid back their crude oil bills has come to the fore after more than 2,000 Korean companies entered Iran. About 8 trillion won was put into an Iranian account, but the account was frozen due to economic sanctions led by the United States.
After the war in Ukraine, Russia left, and even its ally China took Saudi Arabia’s route, the US and EU were farther apart, and the Iranian government was shaken by hijab protests.
Professor Lee explained, “It’s a pity that we missed the initial response and it’s a more difficult situation. If we can’t make an explicit apology in the future, we have to think about how to solve this problem in a different way.” It is not easy to make a public apology diplomatically, so it is necessary to persuade behind the scenes by sending a special envoy.
Active efforts to return the currently frozen funds of 8 trillion won to Iran, and market management strategies and private contacts to the extent that Iranians acknowledge through non-political public diplomacy or expansion of private support are the cards of behind-the-scenes persuasion. are being discussed
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- Eunmi Won
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