The head of the International Maritime Organization has said that naval escorts through the Strait of Hormuz will not “100 per cent guarantee” the safety of ships attempting to transit the critical waterway.
Arsenio Dominguez, secretary-general of the IMO, told the FT that military assistance was “not a long-term or sustainable solution” to open up the strait.
“It reduces the risk, but the risk is still there. The merchant ships and seafarers can be affected,” the Panamanian official said.
The launch of the US-Israel war with Iran has in effect shut the narrow strait, through which normally about a fifth of the world’s oil trade passes. Iran has struck at least 18 vessels in the Gulf region since the outbreak of hostilities, and its new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei has declared the strait “closed” to shipping.
The choke on the world’s oil supplies has pushed the price of Brent crude above $100 per barrel, prompting fears of global economic shocks.
Despite US President Donald Trump promising that the US would provide naval escorts to commercial vessels in order to get oil flowing again, no protection has been forthcoming.
Trump, in an interview with the FT on Monday, threatened a “very bad future” for Nato if European allies did not join the US effort.
He also said that he would delay a promised summit with China if Beijing did not provide assistance, arguing that Europe and China were far more reliant on Gulf oil than the US.
Dominguez said that part of the problem was the geography of the strait. It is 33km wide at its narrowest point, but the combined width of the deep-water shipping lanes for traffic in each direction is just two nautical miles (about 4km).
The Strait of Hormuz is bounded on the Iranian side by mountains, which favour the aggressors who can strike ships from on high with little notice.
“We are collateral damage of a conflict when the root causes have nothing to do with shipping,” Dominguez said.
The IMO chief said that the UN agency, which sets the rules for international shipping, also had serious concerns about ships stuck in the Gulf running out of food and supplies for their crews.
The IMO has asked shipping companies to gather information about supplies on board in order to target the ships most in need with aid.
“The situation is concerning, particularly because ships are actually not able to operate freely in the Strait of Hormuz or in the region of the Gulf. Access to ports is limited as well because port facilities are being targeted. At some point, supplies will start running low in relation to food, water and oil [fuel] for the ships to continue to operate.”
The IMO will hold an extraordinary council on Wednesday and Thursday to discuss operational risks for shipowners in the Gulf and a call to de-escalate the conflict.
Between March 2 and 14, only 47 cargo vessels and tankers have passed through the strait, according to UK Maritime Trade Operations. Several belong to the billionaire shipowner George Prokopiou, two of which are involved in delivering oil to India.
Dominguez called for ship managers “not to sail and not to put seafarers at risk and not to put the vessels at risk . . . we need to de-escalate the situation before any shipowners or ship operators actually take the risk”.
Source: Financial Times
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