How ships are risking ‘safe’ passage through the Strait of Hormuz

How ships are risking ‘safe’ passage through the Strait of Hormuz A plan to divert shipping through an alternative corridor off the Omani coast to avoid the threat of mines in the Strait of Hormuz has come under scrutiny after two attacks on ships in recent days. Though Iran and Oman agreed to engage in talks on Monday on the strait's management, the incidents illustrate the complexity of maintaining navigation through the crucial waterway, which remains at the forefront of the standoff between Tehran and Washington. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, the ideological armed wing of the Islamic Republic of Iran, issued a stern warning last week that only certain maritime routes would be authorised for navigation. It added that any ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz outside of the framework defined by Iran “will not be guaranteed safe passage”. In recent days, Iran has acted on its threat. It twice attacked ships in the strait following efforts to open Oman’s territorial waters to both inbound and outbound traffic from the Persian Gulf. In the first attack on June 25, a cargo ship sustained damage by a missile of unknown origin while sailing 7.5 nautical miles (14 kilometres) south-east of Dahit, on Oman’s Musandam Peninsula. The vessel had taken an alternative maritime route to the one typically used in the Strait of Hormuz, instead transiting Omani territorial waters. The aim was to avoid the corridor under the control of the Iranian maritime authority. The ship’s route was recommended on June 18 by the Joint Maritime Information Centre (JMIC), a naval information centre supported by the US government. According to JMIC, this route is “mine-free”, unlike the route usually taken in the centre of the strait. Read moreMiddle East live: Only Iran will carry out Hormuz Strait demining, Tehran says in rebuttal to Macron The attacks on the ships drew retaliatory US airstrikes followed by Iranian drone and missile attacks targeting Bahrain and Kuwait on Sunday, placing negotiations to reach a formal end to the war back on hold. Although Washington and Tehran have since agreed to stop their attacks, traffic through the strait remains disrupted. Only one ship transited the Omani route to exit the Gulf, and another to enter on Monday, Kpler data showed. A hazardous waterway The Strait of Hormuz, though long considered an international waterway, is technically located in Iran and Oman’s territorial waters. However, ships have long used the maritime corridor off Iran for safety reasons. “This stretch of water [off Oman] already existed, but it was rarely used because it runs along the coastline and poses greater safety risks,” said Dirk Siebels, a maritime safety specialist at Risk Intelligence. “If something goes wrong on board – an engine failure, a steering failure or any other incident – you are relatively close to the shore and have very little room to manoeuvre.” Under ordinary circumstances, ships that transit the Strait of Hormuz abide by a system of navigation first established in 1968 by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO). This “traffic separation scheme” functions “like a sort of maritime motorway in the middle of the strait”, Siebels said. Two traffic lanes, separated by a buffer zone, allow ships to enter and leave the Gulf while minimising the risk of collision in what is essentially a bottleneck – the strait is barely 33 kilometres wide at its narrowest point. However, this central corridor is now off-limits due to restrictions imposed by the Iranian authorities, who only allow passage along their own coastline with the approval of their maritime authorities. Aside from the risk to vessels that dare to defy Iran’s constraints, there is the additional threat posed by the possible presence of sea mines. On June 24, the secretary-general of the IMO, Arsenio Dominguez, sounded the alarm, saying that “we have received information that there are mines” in the usual shipping lane. He warned that more than 80 mines would need to be cleared before any resumption of traffic. “No one is in a position to say whether this is true or false,” Siebels said. “But it isn’t even actually necessary for mines to be present: all it takes is to sow doubt so that no one takes the risk of passing through. In any case, clearance of the mines must be carried out first.” Whatever the speculation over mines, the international community was stepping up to address concerns. France on Monday announced it would work with Oman to clear mines from the Strait of Hormuz. "We have decided to collaborate, in conjunction with our partners, on clearing mines from the Strait in order to secure maritime routes and guarantee free and unconditional passage through the Strait of Hormuz," French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on X after meeting with Oman's Sultan Haitham bin Tariq Al at the Élysée Palace. To display this content from X (Twitter), you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement. An Iranian official hit back after Macron posted his statement on X, warning France and others against “provocations”. Iranian deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi said on X that under the interim deal, “demining is carried out solely by Iran and by no other country”. An increasingly busy route According to Siebels, up until recently the route along the Omani coast had become increasingly busy. Around twenty ships had used it in May and early June, a figure that subsequently rose to about 60, according to the IMO. Read moreHow can a joint France-UK mission help restart shipping in the Strait of Hormuz? The alternative route was also intended to offer the nearly 11,000 vessels still trapped in the Gulf a way out. However, the UN-devised plan to enable their departure – using the two coastal routes – was suspended following Thursday's attack on the cargo ship off the coast of Oman. Under the memorandum of understanding signed last week between Tehran and Washington, Iran committed to clearing mines from the strait within 30 days. In recent weeks, France and the UK had committed to jointly lead a coalition of around 40 countries in providing mine-clearing expertise to help secure the vital waterway. Iran said on Monday it had held its first meeting with Oman to discuss the management of the strait. The issue of who controls this strategic strait is far from resolved. It remains a major point of contention between Tehran and Washington, and a key source of leverage in the protracted on again-off again negotiations between the two warring countries. This article has been translated from the original in French by Nicole Trian.