\u201cEverybody on the shipping side is obviously nervous,\u201d Lloyd\u2019s List editor-in-chief Richard Meade told AFP.<\/p>\n
For crews who have been stuck for weeks aboard ships, the agreement between the US and Iran is the first sign of hope.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ceasefire definitely soothes our nerves, hoping it stays this way. The crew is finally taking a breather,\u201d an off-duty captain of a ship, whose crew is stranded off Qatar, told AFP.<\/p>\n
Is it safe?<\/p>\n
Leaving the Gulf now \u201cwould not be advisable\u201d without coordination with the United States and Iran, Jakob Larsen, chief safety and security officer at shipping association Bimco, told AFP.<\/p>\n
He was echoing the advice from other shipping industry voices who say the situation is still too uncertain for any major moves.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe still don\u2019t know if the area has really become safe to pass through,\u201d the Japanese Shipowners\u2019 Association told AFP on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s been a lot of reference to Iran\u2019s 10-point plan, that needs to be clarified for shipping to be confident enough to go back through those waters\u201d, said John Stawpert, principal director marine at the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS).<\/p>\n
He was referring to a proposal presented by Iran as a basis for talks with the US, but which a US official said is not the same set of conditions that were agreed to by the White House.<\/p>\n
The UN\u2019s maritime body (IMO) said on Wednesday that it was working on a mechanism to guarantee \u201csafe transit\u201d.<\/p>\n
Aside from the risk of venturing into the strait at a time of high tension, a disorderly departure from the Gulf also risks causing collisions or grounding, Meade said.<\/p>\n
What about Tehran\u2019s \u2018toll booth\u2019?<\/p>\n
It is still unclear whether Iran\u2019s recent system to allow some ships to cross the strait \u2013 dubbed the \u201cTehran Toll Booth\u201d by Lloyd\u2019s List because of reports that ships had to pay for permission to pass \u2013 will remain in place.<\/p>\n
The Iranian 10-point plan reportedly includes \u201cmaintaining Iranian control over the Strait of Hormuz\u201d.<\/p>\n
US President Donald Trump said in a social media post that Iran has agreed to the \u201cCOMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz\u201d.<\/p>\n
An Iranian diplomatic source told journalists a new mechanism had been organised with Oman \u201cunder which there has been and will be a right of passage\u201d.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, Oman welcomed the ceasefire without commenting on this issue.<\/p>\n
Tehran is expected to ask for US$1 ($1.72) per barrel of oil passing through the strait, to be paid in cryptocurrencies, according to the Financial Times.<\/p>\n
The idea of a partnership with Oman to operate the Strait of Hormuz is \u201cnot a fantasy\u201d, Amir Handjari of the US-based Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft argued in an op-ed on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cOman gets a revenue stream and more strategic relevance. Iran gets legitimacy, cash, and something to show its people it achieved during the war,\u201d the blog post said.<\/p>\n
What precedents are there?<\/p>\n
The effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz is unprecedented. It remained open even during the Iran-Iraq war from 1980 to 1988, though there were some tanker attacks that slowed traffic significantly.<\/p>\n
More recently, in 2024, attacks by pro-Iranian Houthi militias led to a halving of traffic passing through the Suez Canal and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, the French economy ministry said.<\/p>\n
-Agence France-Presse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cEverybody on the shipping side is obviously nervous,\u201d Lloyd\u2019s List editor-in-chief Richard Meade told AFP. For crews who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":371515,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1443,806,3246,38914,194229,48054,63728,36729,2550,545,17150,305,42,45206,168436,16609,43,1118,2847,1523,10715,1230,12128,3048,60776,14042,1521,16483,1529,40,38,41,39,16641,3382,156774,1680,6730],"class_list":{"0":"post-371514","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-about","9":"tag-as","10":"tag-both","11":"tag-caution","12":"tag-chokepoint","13":"tag-crossing","14":"tag-crossings","15":"tag-dilemma","16":"tag-even","17":"tag-extreme","18":"tag-fate","19":"tag-have","20":"tag-headlines","21":"tag-highlighting","22":"tag-hormuz","23":"tag-iran","24":"tag-news","25":"tag-of","26":"tag-only","27":"tag-over","28":"tag-remains","29":"tag-reopen","30":"tag-risked","31":"tag-said","32":"tag-ships","33":"tag-strait","34":"tag-strategic","35":"tag-though","36":"tag-three","37":"tag-top-news","38":"tag-top-stories","39":"tag-topnews","40":"tag-topstories","41":"tag-uncertain","42":"tag-using","43":"tag-waterway","44":"tag-wednesday","45":"tag-would"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}