UN seeks to restart Strait of Hormuz ship evacuations
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RIYADH, June 26 (Saudi Arabia Breaking News) — The United Nations is working with countries to resume the evacuation of hundreds of ships and thousands of stranded seafarers from the Strait of Hormuz after the effort was halted earlier this week, a senior U.N. maritime official said on Friday.
The International Maritime Organization said it had temporarily paused the operation after a container ship operated by Taiwan’s Evergreen was attacked.
IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez told a virtual news conference that 115 vessels and about 2,500 seafarers were able to sail through the strait before evacuations were suspended.
Dominguez said he was working with several parties, particularly Oman, the United States and Iran, to secure guarantees that vessels would not be targeted.
He said the IMO was ready to restart the evacuation process once further confirmations were received, but gave no timeframe.
Tehran on Friday reasserted its right to control shipping in the critical waterway and warned Gulf neighbours against siding with Washington.
Dominguez said his main contacts in Iran were the maritime authority and the foreign ministry.
The IMO is also investigating the reasons and motivation behind the attack on the container ship, he said.
The evacuation plan provides two channels for ships to leave the strait, through Iranian waters in the north or Omani waters in the south.
Dominguez said the central section of the Traffic Separation Scheme, established by the IMO in 1968, was not currently usable because of the presence of about 80 explosive mines.
He said it would take a few weeks to evacuate the more than 500 vessels still stranded once operations resume.
