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More than 1,000 ships, mostly oil tankers, are idled near the Strait of Hormuz. Attacks by Iran have forced the vessels to wait until it's safe to pass through the vital economic waterway, but it is not closed off completely. Some ships are actually finding ways to sail through the narrow waterway without much of a problem. NPR's international affairs correspondent Jackie Northam has this report.
JACKIE NORTHAM, BYLINE: During times of peace, about 130 ships would cross the narrow Strait of Hormuz each day. But since the war in Iran broke out, that number has plummeted to four or five vessels a day - most of those are either owned or flagged in Iran. But Bridget Diakun, a senior analyst at Lloyd's List, the shipping industry news provider, said recently there's been other activity in the strait.
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BRIDGET DIAKUN: We have, in the last several days, seen some vessels linked directly to India's government and Pakistan's government going through. And we're also now getting word that China is potentially pushing, or there is going to be a push for China state-linked vessels to pass through.
NORTHAM: Several governments, including India, China and Iraq, are in negotiations with Tehran about coordinating ship transit, according to Lloyd's List. Diakun, speaking at an event by the International Institute of Strategic Studies, says it's unclear what criteria is being used.
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DIAKUN: I would say there's not a ton of evidence to suggest that anyone has a free pass through the Strait of Hormuz. You know, I think if there were proper, you know, negotiated agreements, broadly, we would see a lot more vessels moving. I mean, it's still only, like, you know, four or five ships. It's not a huge, huge volume.
NORTHAM: Diakun says the ships that got through were grilled by Iran about ownership, ports of call and any affiliation with the U.S. or Israel. Jim Krane is an energy research fellow at Rice University's Baker Institute, specializing in the Middle East. He says this is similar to the situation a few years ago in Yemen, when Iranian-aligned Houthis attacked ships in the Red Sea in retaliation for the Gaza War.
JIM KRANE: It looks like the Iranians have sort of taken a page from the Houthi playbook here, giving sort of selective access to the Strait of Hormuz to friendly ships or crews or owners from, you know, countries that have expressed sympathy or neutrality with their goals, and blocking all those that they deem hostile.
NORTHAM: Harrison Pretat is deputy director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He says Iran appears to have opened up an auxiliary channel for vessels. Pretat says Iranians are diverting ships closer to its coast. Normally, they go right down the middle of the strait, where there's more room.
HARRISON PRETAT: This other route is a more narrow channel. It appears to be able to accommodate large vessels 'cause we saw the Pakistani tanker, for example, use it, and a few other vessels that are flagged to the Marshall Islands, Panama. We've seen a handful of ships use this route in the past couple of days.
NORTHAM: Pretat says this is Iran demonstrating it can control the flow of traffic through one of the most strategically important waterways in the world. Homayoun Falakshahi, who leads the crude analysis team at Kpler, a global trade intelligence provider, says he doesn't expect hundreds more ships to cross the Strait of Hormuz anytime soon.
HOMAYOUN FALAKSHAHI: Even though, you know, we're seeing some tankers pass through - some non-Iranian tankers - I think most of the industry is still in a very cautious mode because of all of the other incidents that we've seen. I think, in total, Iran has hit nearly 20 tankers. So I think, basically, the risk is still too high.
NORTHAM: The situation around the Strait of Hormuz could get even more precarious if the U.S. sends in Marines to help open the waterway. Jackie Northam, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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