UN agency working to restart Hormuz evacuations after ship attack

The United Nations is working with countries to resume the evacuation of hundreds of ships and thousands of stranded seafarers from the Strait of Hormuz after the effort was halted earlier this week, a top UN agency official says.

The UN’s International Maritime Organization says it has “temporarily paused” its evacuation initiative after a container ship operated by Taiwan’s Evergreen was attacked.

Some 115 vessels and around 2,500 seafarers were able to sail through the strait before evacuations were paused, IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez tells a virtual news conference.

Dominguez says he is working “vigilantly” with several parties and was having conversations with countries — particularly Oman, the United States, and Iran — “in order to find these guarantees that were provided at the beginning, that vessels will not be targeted”.

“As soon as I get further confirmations of that, we’re ready to re-initiate the process of evacuation,” he says, though he adds that he cannot provide a timeframe for a resumption.