Some 1,500 ships trapped in Gulf due to Iran war, UN maritime agency says

Around 1,500 ships and their crews are trapped in the Gulf due to the Iranian blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, the UN’s International Maritime Organization (IMO) chief says.

Iran began blocking the strait at the start of its war with the US and Israel in late February. The strait is a key pathway for the global oil and gas supply.

“Right now, we have approximately 20,000 crewmen and around 1,500 ships trapped,” IMO secretary-general Arsenio Dominguez tells the Maritime Convention of the Americas in Panama.

Dominguez says that maritime shipping moves over 80 percent of total consumed products in the world.

The stranded crew members “are innocent people who are doing their jobs every day for the benefit of other countries,” but “are trapped by geopolitical situations outside their control,” Dominguez tells the gathering of industry executives and IMO representatives.

“Ten sailors have lost their lives” in more than 30 attacks on vessels, he later tells reporters.

The IMO chief urges avoiding sending vessels to the Gulf so as not to increase the death toll among sailors or incur further economic losses.