The United Nations’ maritime agency has temporarily suspended its plan to help evacuate stranded ships and seafarers from the Middle East Gulf after a container vessel was attacked in the Gulf of Oman, raising fresh concerns over the security of shipping routes despite a fragile U.S.-Iran peace agreement.
The International Maritime Organization (IMO) said the suspension followed Thursday’s attack on a Singapore-flagged container ship near Oman’s coast. A U.S. official told CNBC that Iran was believed to be responsible for the strike, although Tehran had not immediately commented.
IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez said the agency was pausing the evacuation initiative to verify that adequate safety guarantees remained in place for vessels awaiting departure from the Gulf.
“The evacuation plan will be temporarily paused in order to reconfirm that the necessary safety guarantees continue to be in place for the ships on our evacuation list and all those in the region,” Dominguez said in a statement.
The evacuation programme, launched earlier this week, was designed to assist hundreds of stranded vessels and thousands of seafarers by providing designated transit routes through either Iranian or Omani waters following a 60-day interim peace agreement between the United States and Iran.
The deal, reached after months of conflict, had encouraged some shipowners to resume using the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most important oil shipping lanes. However, maritime traffic remains significantly below levels seen before the conflict began in late February.
According to Lloyd’s List Intelligence, 125 vessels transited the Strait of Hormuz during the first week after the ceasefire, the highest weekly volume since the outbreak of hostilities.
Tensions escalated again on Wednesday when Iran’s military warned that vessels should not use the southern transit corridor endorsed by the IMO without Tehran’s approval, describing any unauthorised route as “unacceptable and dangerous.”
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Lloyd’s reported that at least two vessels reversed course while leaving the Gulf after Iranian authorities insisted that ships use routes approved by Tehran. Both vessels had been sailing along the southern route near Oman’s coastline.
The vessel struck on Thursday was owned by Taiwanese shipping company Evergreen and sailed under the Singapore flag. Dominguez said it was not travelling under the IMO’s evacuation framework at the time of the attack.
The incident has renewed uncertainty over maritime security in the region and could further delay efforts to restore normal commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical gateway for global energy supplies.
