Strait of Hormuz - Int'l Maritime Organization (IMO) Press Conference | United Nations

Press Conference by Arsenio Dominguez, Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), on the Strait of Hormuz. Following an attack on a vessel in the Gulf of Oman, IMO has decided to temporarily pause its evacuation operation pending further clarity, the Secretary-General of the Organization said. The chief of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) Arsenio Dominguez spoke to reporters today (26 Jun) via video link from London. Dominguez said he is currently working with several parties, in particular Oman, the United States and Iran, to reconfirm that the necessary safety guarantees continue to be in place for the ships on its evacuation list and all those in the region. The evacuation was paused on Thursday (25 Jun) after a container ship, the Ever Lovely, was struck while transiting the strait near Oman’s coast. Dominguez explained that the attacked vessel did not transit under IMO’s evacuation framework, adding that the Organization is waiting on the investigation of exactly what happened to the vessel. The IMO chief reiterated that the safety of the seafarers remains paramount. Therefore, to ensure a coordinated approach and navigational safety, the evacuation plan will be paused until further clarity is obtained. He said, “while we have paused the evacuation of IMO, there are still some vessels that are transiting in the southern part of the Strait of Hormuz. And this is why it's important to reactivate the mechanism, in order to provide more safety guarantees for all the vessels that are waiting to transit. “ Dominguez also said, “the most recent information that I have from this morning. And again, I still need to fully verify, but four vessels were reported to transit using the northern corridor, and eleven vessels transit through the southern corridor.” He continued, “it is important to also highlight that the southern corridor, the United States together with Oman, have continued to provide some assistance to the vessels. So even though the mechanism from IMO has been paused for the time being, there are still vessels that are actually utilizing the southern corridor in order to transit out of the Strait of Hormuz.” The IMO Secretary-General reiterated, “shipping should not be used as collateral in any conflict and we all have been experiencing the very negative impacts on the economy, on food security whenever shipping gets affected.” The International Maritime Organization (IMO) said that 115 ships carrying roughly 2,500 crew members had left the Gulf during the first three and a half days of the operation. The figures offered the first concrete measure of an evacuation launched this week to rescue some 11,000 mariners stranded aboard 600 vessels since the war pitting Israel and the United States against Iran erupted in late February.


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