Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran effectively blocked at the start of its war with the US and Israel, has reached its highest level in weeks. Over the weekend, 21 ships passed through the passage, the highest since early March.
Bloomberg writes about this.
Of these ships, 13 passed from the Persian Gulf into the Arabian Sea. Most were Iranian, but one tanker was from Iraq. In recent days, Iran has allowed several Indian LNG tankers, as well as ships from Japan, China, Turkey, Greece and Thailand, to pass through the strait.
This came after a number of countries signed agreements with Iran for safe passage through the strait. The details of the agreements are currently unknown.
Bloomberg notes that before Iran effectively blocked the Strait of Hormuz after US and Israeli strikes, an average of 135 ships passed through this route per day.
War in the Middle East and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz
On the morning of February 28, the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran. These attacks killed Iranʼs Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and almost the entire military leadership of the country — about 40 key high-ranking officials.
Iran, in response to the US and Israeli attacks, began shelling Arab countries and Israel. The war also halted tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow sea corridor between Iran and Oman that connects the Persian Gulf to the Indian Ocean. About a fifth of the worldʼs oil exports, tens of millions of barrels a day, passed through it.
Markets reacted to the closure of this route instantly: oil, gas, and precious metals rose in price, and on March 9, world oil prices exceeded $100 per barrel — for the first time in almost four years.
On April 4, it was reported that the Iranian authorities decided to allow ships carrying humanitarian and vital cargo bound for Iranian ports to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.
The US President Donald Trump on April 4 threatened Iran with “all hell” if it did not reach an agreement to open the Strait of Hormuz. Trump initially gave Iran 48 hours to do so (i.e., by April 6), but then gave it another deadline of no later than 8:00 PM Eastern Time on Tuesday, April 7.
For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine, please follow us on X.