The Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s busiest chokepoints, is effectively stuck in neutral. For crews and traders alike, the language coming out of Tehran and the practical reality on the water don’t match the idea that the corridor is simply reopening.
Misryoum newsroom reported that shipping traffic is at a standstill despite an Iran ceasefire, with ships unable to move through as freely as before. Jakob Larsen, chief safety and security officer at BIMCO, said ships trapped in the Persian Gulf will be interested in leaving as soon as it is safe to do so, but the industry is still awaiting technical details from the U.S. and from Iran on how to transit the Strait of Hormuz safely. In the background, the fear is familiar—engines idling, radios busy, and that dull, metallic smell of ship air that settles in near the bridge when you’re waiting too long.
Iran has insisted that ships wanting to transit must secure its permission, and has suggested it retains the right to impose a fee for passage. Late Wednesday, the Iranian navy released a map indicating it may have mined the strait and outlining designated shipping lanes vessels should use to transit safely. Outbound ships leaving the Persian Gulf are directed along a route just south of Larak Island, while inbound vessels must follow a route north of the island—both closer to Iran’s mainland than the route often taken before the war. A large portion of the strait, marked in a rectangular box that also includes Oman’s territorial waters, is designated in the map as “hazardous.”
This is where the confusion really bites. Misryoum editorial desk noted that Iranian deputy foreign minister Saeed Khatibzadeh told ITV News in an interview published Thursday that “We have to be very careful for the security and safety of tankers and vessels.” That emphasis—security and safety—sits awkwardly beside the fact that, at one point, American officials insisted the strait had reopened. The difference between words and what captains can actually do shows up in ports right now, and it’s scrambling schedules across the region.
In Abu Dhabi, Sultan Al Jaber, chief executive of Abu Dhabi’s national oil company and a United Arab Emirates government minister, said in a LinkedIn post on Thursday: “This moment requires clarity. So let’s be clear: the Strait of Hormuz is not open. Access is being restricted, conditioned and controlled.” At the same time, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said the European Union and its partners were “finalizing” plans to set up a mission to escort ships. “Work is well advanced” for the mission to be deployed once calm has been fully restored, he told France Inter radio—though it’s unclear how such a mission would interact with Iran’s stance.
The uncertainty spills into details that sound small, but aren’t. Misryoum analysis indicates Chinese ships were among a long line waiting for clearance to leave the strait, according to Muyu Xu, a Singapore-based analyst with Kpler. She said the situation remains confusing, including how last week Iran said it was accepting Chinese yuan as payment for transit, but then shifted to a preference for cryptocurrency. “Ships don’t know whether they need to pay first, or they go past first and then Iran sends a bill? It’s just a lot of uncertainty,” she said. Even the question of whether paying Iran could put shipping companies in violation of international sanctions remains unresolved, and it’s not just about money—it’s about the risk calculus captains and operators are now forced to make on the fly.
So the legal and political arguments are running ahead of practical solutions. The charging of fees or tolls has been dubbed Iran’s “tollbooth” system, with maritime law experts questioning the legality. John Stawpert, marine principal director at the International Chamber of Shipping, said the charging of fees or tolls would be an extreme outlier and would set a dangerous precedent, adding that reopening must respect maritime law and custom, and not restrict freedom of navigation and innocent passage through tolls. Iran has not ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) guaranteeing the right to transit passage, which complicates the legal questions. Mark Chadwick, a principal lecturer in law at Nottingham Trent University, said it was unclear what international law has to say given its fragmentary and horizontal (consent-based) nature.
Meanwhile, for crews, this is less a debate than a daily wait. After weeks of haggling with authorities, Rex Pereira secured three emergency visas to leave the oil tanker where he had been stranded for over a month. The shipman embarked on Sunday for an over 48-hour journey from the Iraqi port where his vessel was anchored to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, before finally meeting his wife and parents in his hometown of Mumbai. “The ships which are already stuck near the Strait of Hormuz, they just want to escape from there,” Pereira, 28, said. “Most of the seafarers, I feel they didn’t sign up for all this. They just want to be home,” he said. Misryoum newsroom reported that he arrived home Tuesday, but many others like him—and the ships they’re on—are still waiting, still listening for any sign that the corridor might actually let go.
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