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U.N. maritime chief warns Hormuz too dangerous for ships
IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez says companies should not risk passage
Key Takeaways:
- International Maritime Organization Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez said the Strait of Hormuz remains too dangerous for commercial vessels despite previous U.S.-Iran peace efforts.
- Renewed Iranian attacks on commercial ships prompted the IMO to scrap a seafarer evacuation program and contributed to a collapse in observable transits.
- Dominguez said international law does not support mandatory transit tolls and the IMO continues backing voluntary safety measures as 6,000 seafarers remain stranded.
The International Maritime Organization said the Strait of Hormuz remains too dangerous for commercial vessels to transit, the most significant warning to the shipping industry about navigational safety since an interim peace deal between Washington and Tehran unraveled.
Shortly after the temporary accord in June, the International Maritime Organization created a ship-evacuation program to rescue seafarers who’d been trapped on ships inside the Persian Gulf.
But as Iran continued to attack commercial vessels in the waterway, the U.N. agency quickly scrapped the plan. More freighters have been targeted since.
Speaking on Bloomberg Radio, Arsenio Dominguez, the secretary general of the IMO, said that the waterway remains unsafe.
“I will maintain the message of upholding international law, for countries to do the same thing, and for companies — at this stage, particularly with the volatility — not to take risk to transit through the strait of Hormuz,” he said.
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Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remained thin on July 15. (Bloomberg)
His comments underscore just how far away the Hormuz is from returning to normal, despite U.S. efforts to secure transits on a route that’s close to Oman’s coast. The interim peace deal saw a brief period in which oil began to flow through the waterway again, but the renewed attacks have seen a collapse in observable transits.
Dominguez also said there’s no basis under international law for imposing tolls or mandatory payments, comments that came just days after President Donald Trump briefly said that he would do exactly that — only to shelve the idea.
Dominguez reiterated that the IMO supports voluntary measures that improve navigational safety. There are still 6,000 seafarers stranded, he said.
Written by Stephen Carroll, Caroline Hepker and Alaric Nightingale
