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LONDON/MAMANA/DUBAI, June 25 (Reuters) – The U.N. International Maritime Organization paused its operation to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday after a vessel reported an attack, reigniting fears over a preliminary deal to end the Iran war.
The cargo ship said it was hit close to Oman by a projectile, the British navy agency UKMTO said, hours after Tehran warned vessels against taking routes that it had not approved.
Two U.S. officials told Reuters that Iran had fired on the ship, while Iran’s Persian Gulf Strait Authority, which Tehran established to manage requests for ships to travel through the strait, said vessels outside routes it has set will not be guaranteed safe passage.
Four sources identified the ship as the Singapore-flagged Ever Lovely. A security source said it was likely targeted by a drone.
The IMO was helping to get hundreds of stranded ships and thousands of seafarers out of the strait where they had been stranded for months since the start of the war in late February.
It decided “to temporarily pause its implementation to reconfirm that the necessary safety guarantees continue to be in place for the ships on our evacuation list and all those in the region,” IMO Secretary General Arsenio Dominguez said in a statement.
The IMO said the ship involved in the suspected attack was not part of its evacuation programme.
There was no immediate comment from the U.S. government. U.S. President Donald Trump warned earlier this month that if Iran did not honor an agreement aimed at ending the war and reopening the strait, the U.S. would probably go back to bombing the country again.
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