Strait of Hormuz: UN evacuates 2,500 seafarers before attack freezes rescue operation

(UN News) The United Nations’ maritime agency said on Friday that it had successfully evacuated about 2,500 stranded seafarers from the Persian Gulf before suspending the operation, after an attack on a commercial vessel exposed uncertainty over who can guarantee safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz. 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. The evacuation was paused on Thursday after a container ship, the Ever Lovely, was struck while transiting the strait near Oman’s coast. The vessel was not participating in the IMO-led operation, Arsenio Dominguez, the head of the UN agency, said during a press conference on Friday. “We’re still on the investigation of exactly what happened to the vessel,” Mr. Dominguez told reporters from his office in London. But, he added, “what I can confirm to you is [the ship] was not contacting the authorities in Oman in order to transit, following the evacuation framework”. His remarks offered the clearest picture yet of a rescue effort that has become entangled in the fragile diplomacy surrounding one of the world’s most strategically important waterways. – Strait of Hormuz: UN evacuates 2,500 seafarers before attack freezes rescue operation | UN News