A handful vessels – mostly Chinese tankers or bulk carriers – transited the Strait Saturday, according to the MarineTraffic website, News.Az reports.
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A Chinese bulk carrier passed through overnight after setting out from the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr almost a month ago.
Two Chinese crude oil tankers, each with a capacity of about 300,000 tonnes and showing as laden, passed through the Strait later Saturday. Both were sailing close to the Iranian coast.
And a Botswana-flagged liquified natural gas tanker called the Nidi succeeded in reaching the Gulf of Oman at the second attempt, after turning back early Friday.
Traffic is still a small fraction of what it would normally be – some 100 ships a day. Shipping data showed just two bulk carriers passing through the Strait Friday.
On Thursday US President Donald Trump said “Iran is doing a very poor job, dishonorable some would say, of allowing Oil to go through the Strait of Hormuz.”
“That is not the agreement we have!” Trump posted on social media.
The semi-official Iranian news agency Tasnim said in a report from Islamabad Saturday that Iran “has maintained the current conditions for tanker transit through the Strait of Hormuz,” in response to what Tehran claims are US breaches of the ceasefire agreement, including Israel’s continuing strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Iran has said vessels can pass through the Strait only with its approval.
