LONDON, June 25 (Reuters) – The United Nations shipping agency on Thursday paused an evacuation effort, which aimed to get hundreds of stranded ships and thousands of seafarers out through the Strait of Hormuz, after a vessel was attacked in the Gulf of Oman.
“I have been informed of an attack today in the Gulf of Oman on a vessel which passed through the Strait of Hormuz. This vessel did not transit under IMO’s evacuation framework,” Arsenio Dominguez, Secretary-General of the U.N.’s International Maritime Organization, said in a statement.
“I have decided to temporarily pause its implementation in order to reconfirm that the necessary safety guarantees continue to be in place for the ships on our evacuation list and all those in the region.”
The initiative, which was launched on Tuesday, was a voluntary option for ships and their crew to sail out of the Gulf using two routes: one via Iranian waters, and the other via Omani waters with U.S. oversight, the IMO said this week.
Some 57 ships carrying an estimated 1,100 seafarers had transited the Strait of Hormuz under the evacuation plan from June 23 until the morning of June 25, initial IMO data showed earlier on Thursday.
The IMO provided no details on the vessel attacked.
A container ship reported a suspected attack as it attempted to pass through the strait close to the coast of Oman on Thursday, British navy agency UKMTO said earlier.
One maritime security source said the vessel was likely targeted by a drone, although it was not clear yet who carried out the strike.
(Reporting by Jonathan Saul, Editing by William Maclean and Edmund Klamann)
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