Some 1,500 ships trapped in Gulf due to Iran war

“Some 1,500 ships trapped in Gulf due to Iran war Around 1,500 ships and their crews are trapped in the Gulf due to the Iranian blockade in the Strait of Hormuz, the UN's International Maritime Organisation (IMO) chief said in Panama Thursday. The war unleashed on 28 February by Israel and the United States against Iran provoked reprisals from Tehran across the region and a shipping blockade in Hormuz, a crucial global trade route. "Right now, we have approximately 20,000 crewmen and around 1,500 ships trapped," IMO secretary-general Arsenio Dominguez told the Maritime Convention of the Americas. Dominguez said that maritime shipping moves over 80 percent of total consumed products in the world. The stranded crew members "are innocent people who are doing their jobs every day for the benefit of other countries," but "are trapped by geopolitical situations outside their control," Dominguez told the gathering of industry executives and IMO representatives.

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