DUBAI — The UN’s International Maritime Organization (IMO) has halted the planned evacuation of more than 11,000 sailors stranded in the Strait of Hormuz after a British military agency said a cargo ship passing through the waterwaywas hit by a projectile off the coast of Oman.
IMO secretary-general Arsenio Dominguez said several boats had already been evacuated, but the agency wanted to ensure that “necessary safety guarantees” would continue to be in place.
The British maritime security agency UKMTO reported on Thursday that a ship had been struck 7.5 nautical miles southeast of Oman’s port of Dahit by “an unknown projectile”. No casualties were reported.
Maritime risk management firm Vanguard said the ship, Singapore-flagged Ever Lovely, continued through strait despite the attack.
It was unclear who launched the projectile or the type of vessel that was targeted, but US officials said Iran had fired on the ship, according to US media reports.
The report of a strike came hours after Iran threatened vessels to stop using the route through the strait without Tehran’s permission.
Following reports of the attack, thePersian Gulf Strait Authority, the body set up by Iran to manage the strait, said vessels passing outside designated routes would not be guaranteed safe passage.
The vessel that was attacked was not part of the evacuation effort, said IMO chief Dominguez.
The UKMTO said the vessel sustained damage, but it reported no injuries or environmental effects from the attack off the coast of Oman.
The opening of an alternative passage through the vital waterway would relieve pressure on the world economy and remove Iran’s main source of leverage in ongoing peace talks with the United States.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, on a visit to the Gulf to reassure American allies, said Washington was committed to the new route and ensuring that ships are able to transit the strait.
“If that stops, then we’re going to have a problem,” Rubio said earlier Thursday.
Traffic through the strait increased in recent days but was still well below prewar levels. Oil on Thursday briefly dipped below its last prewar price of just under $73 per barrel, a sign that the market believes the situation is improving.
The US and Iran are still debating terms of an interim peace deal, including issues such as getting ships through the narrow waterway and addressing the future of Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium.
Under the memorandum of understanding signed last week, the US and Iran have 60 days to iron out the details.
Oil tankers, led by the Stoic Warrior vessel, sailed along the United Arab Emirates and then Oman early Thursday, passing by Oman’s Musandam Peninsula fairly close to the shore. The route was laid out by Oman and the IMO.
North of the route is a corridor in the center of the strait where ships moved freely before the war, transporting about a fifth of all the world’s oil and natural gas.
Though some ships had been getting out of the strait, with US military support, the UN agency’s effort was the latest to free trapped vessels. The shipping company Maersk said its container ship, the Maersk Baltimore, and another chartered vessel made it out on Thursday.
Last week, 125 vessels crossed the strait, up from 33 the week before, according to marine data and analysis firm Lloyd’s List Intelligence.
According to S&P Global, Wednesday saw 78 transits, the most since the war began, but still below the daily prewar average of 130 or more.
The naval arm of the Revolutionary Guard issued a warning Thursday against using the new route.
In a statement carried by Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency, naval officials said the route was established without notice or coordination with Iran, calling it “unacceptable and completely dangerous.”
“The only authorized route for passing through the Strait of Hormuz is the one declared by the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the Iranian force said. “Vessel traffic outside these routes is extremely dangerous and prohibited.”
Source: Saudi Gazette