HERE WE GO AGAIN: With 2021 Still Young, We Already Have Trouble from Tehran.

Iran wasted no time setting a terrible tone for its 2021 foreign policy this week, making it clear that Tehran remains firmly committed to expanding its nuclear program and defeating U.S. sanctions.

First, its paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps navy seized a South Korean-flagged chemical tanker sailing the Persian Gulf near the Strait of Hormuz, reportedly for maritime pollution violations, according to Tehran. The tanker and crew are being held in Iran.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards repeatedly have seized ships in international waters off Iran’s coast as a means of taking hostages to use as bargaining leverage in disputes with foreign countries or companies.

The pollution charges furnish a convenient pretext for a not-so-veiled attempt to squeeze Seoul to release some of the $7 billion in Iranian assets frozen in South Korea by U.S. sanctions. The fact that the ship hijacking occurred shortly before the upcoming visit to Tehran of South Korea’s deputy foreign minister is no coincidence.

It gets worse.

They probably be rewarded handsomely for bad behavior under a Biden Administration.