NEW YORK, April 21. /TASS/. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) is working on a plan to evacuate hundreds of vessels stuck in the Persian Gulf, the UN agency’s Secretary General Arsenio Dominguez said.
The implementation of such a plan would only start "when there are clear signs of de-escalation" of the Middle East conflict, Bloomberg quoted the IMO head as saying. According to Dominguez, the details of the plan are currently under discussion, including the order of departure for the vessels, which will depend on how long the crews have been stranded, among other factors.
Earlier, an IMO spokesperson told a TASS correspondent that the UN maritime agency had called on vessels not to pass through the Strait of Hormuz without security guarantees.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had previously reported the opening of the Strait of Hormuz to commercial vessels. In turn, US President Donald Trump stated that Washington would maintain the blockade of Iranian waters until a final agreement is reached. After that, the Iranian Armed Forces said that they had closed the strait until the American naval blockade was fully lifted. The army urged vessel owners to comply exclusively with Iranian recommendations and characterized Trump’s statements about the situation in the Strait of Hormuz as "untrustworthy."