Evacuation plan through Hormuz for stranded ships in Gulf underway, UN agency says

LONDON — An evacuation plan allowing hundreds of ships carrying about 11,000 seafarers stranded in the Gulf to safely transit the Strait of Hormuz is now underway after Iran and the United States reached a ceasefire agreement, the United Nations’ shipping agency said Tuesday.

“We have now started contacting the ships to begin the evacuation,” a spokesperson for the U.N.’s International Maritime Organization (IMO) said, without providing a timeline.

The IMO said it had obtained the necessary safety assurances and verified conditions for safe navigation in the area.

“This large-scale operation will be carried out in close cooperation with Iran, Oman, all other coastal states in the region, the United States, and the maritime industry,” IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez said in a statement.

Oman’s defense ministry said separately in an advisory that the evacuation process under the IMO plan, which has been under discussion for months, will be carried out in phases.

“Given the elevated risk of collision in the current environment, a gradual and controlled evacuation of vessel traffic is required,” the ministry said.

It added that the Traffic Separation Scheme in the Strait of Hormuz was “not safe for use at this time” and that two temporary alternative routes north and south of the scheme could be used during the evacuation.

“Vessels will be contacted individually and advised of their allocated transit day by the parties coordinated by the IMO,” the advisory said.

The scheme, adopted by the IMO in 1968, established designated shipping lanes through Iranian and Omani waters in the strategic waterway.

Authorities have warned that floating mines remain among the major risks in waters around the Strait of Hormuz. -Reporting by Jonathan SaulEditing by Gareth Jones and Andrew Cawthorne/Reuters