More than 11,000 seafarers stranded in the Persian Gulf will begin evacuating through the Strait of Hormuz under a massive evacuation plan backed by Iran and the United States, the International Maritime Organization said on Tuesday.
“We have ensured the necessary security guarantees and thoroughly verified the conditions for safe navigation to support these operations,” IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez said in a statement.
Dominguez said the operation will be carried out “in close cooperation with Iran, Oman, all other coastal states in the region, the United States and the maritime industry.”
The Omani Navy announced that ships will depart in stages through two temporary maritime corridors to ensure the safety of sailors.
According to the bulletin, transport lanes based on the pre-war Traffic Segregation System (TSS) are currently unsafe to use. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Congress on June 2 that Iran had mined large areas of Hormuz.
Ships can exit the strait via the southern and northern routes of the TSS, the news agency said. Each vessel will be individually notified of departure instructions and transit dates.
The evacuation plan comes nearly a week after Iran and the United States signed a memorandum of understanding to reopen the port of Hormuz. Since the Memorandum of Understanding was signed, shipping traffic has increased but remains well below pre-war levels.
According to Kpler’s ship tracking service MarineTraffic, the number of passing vessels tripled to 93 over the weekend of June 19-21, compared to 32 between June 12 and 14. At least 39 ships crossed the strait on Monday, according to data shared by Kpler. Before the war, more than 100 people passed through it every day.
Hormuz is crucial to global energy markets, with about 20% of oil supplies passing through the strait before the US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28. Tanker traffic collapsed after Iran retaliated by attacking a commercial ship, causing the largest oil supply disruption in history.
