The International Maritime Organization (IMO) of the United Nations has paused plans to evacuate ships from the Strait of Hormuz, following an attack on a vessel in the Gulf of Oman.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said a cargo ship reported the attack as it attempted to transit the Strait of Hormuz near the coast of Oman on Thursday. The vessel was struck on the starboard side, 14 km southeast of the port of Dahit, Oman.
A maritime security source said the ship may have been targeted by a drone, but it was unclear who carried out the attack.
The IMO began evacuating 600 ships and around 11,000 stranded seafarers on Tuesday after the Strait of Hormuz was closed during the US-Israel war against Iran. However, on Thursday, the IMO chief announced a suspension of the plan.
“I have decided to suspend the execution [of the evacuation plan] in order to reconfirm that the necessary safety guarantees still apply to the vessels on the evacuation list and to all ships in the area,” IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez said in a statement.
Maritime news agency identified the attacked vessel as the Singapore-flagged container ship Ever Lovely. The ship was not part of the IMO evacuation framework.
The attack came hours after Iran warned vessels not to use the route through the Strait of Hormuz without Tehran’s permission. Maritime security firm Ambrey said Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had ordered two Panama-flagged ships to change course earlier that day.
Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization (PGSA) declared that transiting outside the routes it designated “will not be guaranteed safety” and any consequences would be the responsibility of the shipowner, operator, and captain.
According to MarineTraffic, 70 transits through the strait were confirmed on Wednesday and 31 on Tuesday, compared with a pre-war average of about 120 vessels per day. “Operators are still moving cautiously rather than returning to full normalcy,” the ship-tracking service said.
Oman warned that the evacuation should proceed in phases to avoid a high risk of collisions. Denmark also announced it would join an international maritime mission led by France and Britain aimed at reopening the waterway.
