China Assures Iran of Continued Efforts to Contain Fire in Oil Tanker
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi assured his Iranian counterpart on Saturday that Chinese rescue teams will continue efforts to fight roaring fire at an Iranian oil tanker that has been ablaze for a week after a crash in the East China Sea.
In a telephone conversation with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Saturday, China’s top diplomat expressed sympathy to Iran for the tragic incident involving Iranian oil tanker ‘Sanchi’.
He said the Chinese rescue teams have done their utmost to extinguish the big fire at the Iranian vessel, stressing that rescue attempts would go on.
Sanchi collided with a Chinese freight ship in the East China Sea on January 6 and has been burning for several days.
Chinese state media reported on Saturday that rescuers have recovered the bodies of two crew members on board the oil tanker.
While three bodies have been found so far, the fate of the other 29 people on board in unknown, with hopes that the survivors may have taken shelter in a safe compartment inside the vessel.
The Panama-registered tanker was carrying 136,000 tons of condensate, an ultra-light crude that is highly flammable, to South Korea.
Elsewhere in the telephone conversation, the foreign ministers of Iran and China discussed the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), with both stressing the need for all parties to honor their commitments under the nuclear agreement between Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany).
Since the historic deal was signed in Vienna in July 2015, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has repeatedly confirmed the Islamic Republic’s compliance with its commitments under the JCPOA, but some other parties, especially the US, have failed to live up to their undertakings.
