Iran\u2019s armed forces struck a container ship that was passing through the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, according to U.S. and Iranian officials, bringing a halt to a plan to evacuate about 11,000 seafarers from the Persian Gulf.<\/p>\n
The attack came as Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Gulf Arab leaders in Bahrain to try to allay their security concerns and hours after Iran had warned ships that the only route through the strait, a vital pathway for oil and natural gas, was through its waters. Many ships had been using a route on the southern side of the strait, hugging the Omani coast<\/a>.<\/p>\n Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps warned ships earlier on Thursday that they must coordinate with its navy and said that they should not take an alternative route, in an apparent reference to Omani territorial waters. The threat came just as shipping in the waterway was surging this week<\/a> after months of paralysis.<\/p>\n \u201cThis route is unacceptable and extremely dangerous,\u201d the Revolutionary Guards\u2019 Navy said early on Thursday in a statement carried by Tasnim, an Iranian news agency tied to the Guards. \u201cWe warn all vessels to strictly refrain from any movement outside the designated routes,\u201d it added, warning that action would be taken against vessels that did not heed its instructions.<\/p>\n The attack prompted the International Maritime Organization to suspend its plan to evacuate the seafarers from hundreds of ships that had been stranded in the Persian Gulf during the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.<\/p>\n The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations organization, which is administered by Britain\u2019s Royal Navy, reported that the cargo vessel had been hit by an \u201cunknown projectile,\u201d damaging the bridge. The episode happened 7.5 nautical miles southeast of Dahit, Oman, where vessels taking the Omani route were transiting.<\/p>\n The ship struck, the Ever Lovely, is owned by Evergreen Marine, a shipping company based in Taiwan, according to Equasis, a ship data base. A spokeswoman for the maritime organization said the Ever Lovely had not coordinated its passage with the agency.<\/p>\n Oil prices jumped<\/a> after the strike, which halted shipping traffic through the crucial waterway. The price of Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil, rose over 2 percent to about $75 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. benchmark, also rose over 2 percent, to around $72 a barrel.<\/p>\n Jakob Larsen, the chief security officer at BIMCO, the world\u2019s largest shipping association, said in a statement on Thursday that the attack underscored the importance of having clear agreements between the United States and Iran on the resumption of shipping through the strait. The current agreement is \u201cnot sufficiently clear,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The Iranian official, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said Oman\u2019s providing an alternative route to vessels for transiting the strait had angered Iran and undermined its control over the passageway, therefore it had decided to take action to create deterrence.<\/p>\n The official said Oman was in a difficult position, working with Iran to create a management system over the strait and under pressure from the United States to reject all monetization and open the waterway. He added that Oman did not have the ability to provide security guarantees to vessels without Iran on board, and that Iran, which was insisting on maintaining its control over the area, would not tolerate a second or third party intervention.<\/p>\n The Wall Street Journal initially reported<\/a> the strike on the vessel in the strait.<\/p>\n Traffic through the strait \u2014 a vital energy route that Iran and the United States blockaded during the war<\/a> \u2014 has jumped this week as vessels stranded for months in the Persian Gulf began leaving. Shipping companies are seeking to take advantage of a temporary two-month window to move Middle East crude oil.<\/p>\n About 70 vessels transited the waterway on Wednesday, including 29 tankers, making it the busiest day since March 1, according figures offered on Thursday by Kpler, a maritime data company. Before the war, 130 or more ships passed through the strait every day.<\/p>\n Bahrain is the final stop of a three-country tour for Mr. Rubio, which also took him to the United Arab Emirates<\/a> and Kuwait<\/a>. At a meeting with representatives of the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council in the Bahraini capital, Manama, Mr. Rubio sought to allay concerns among regional allies over a framework peace agreement<\/a> with Iran that has left some of their central security questions unaddressed.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to ensure that in any decisions that are made throughout this negotiating process, the interest of our partners and our allies in the region are always taken into account,\u201d Mr. Rubio told the council\u2019s representatives on Thursday.<\/p>\n The deal should not undermine \u201cthe security, the stability, or the prosperity of any of our partners in the Gulf region,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n