Iran on Wednesday exempted merchant vessels from India, China, Iraq and Qatar from restrictions on using the Strait of Hormuz. The measure is aimed at facilitating the procurement of medicines from India, an influential Iranian lawmaker has said.
According to Amir Hayat-Moghaddam, who is deputy chairman of the Iranian parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee, ships from these four countries can “pass freely” through the strategic waterway. He added that even the US isn’t standing in their way.
“We have currently exempted India, China, Iraq and Qatar from transit restrictions in the Strait of Hormuz. Ships from these countries pass freely, and the Americans do not intercept them either,” Hayat-Moghaddam said in an interview with the Iranian Students’ News Agency on Tuesday.
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He suggested the exemptions are about safeguarding Iran’s interests with these countries. Indian ships are being allowed through so Iran can bring in medicines from India, he said in Farsi, while the exemption for Chinese shipping is meant to win China’s political support.
Hayat-Moghaddam said Iran collects transit fees from Indian and Chinese vessels, and allows Qatari vessels to pass without charges. He didn’t specify whether Iraqi vessels have to pay transit fees.
India imports almost 90 per cent of its crude oil needs and about 30 per cent of these imports currently pass through the Strait of Hormuz. In the past, the strait accounted for 70 per cent of India’s crude imports, but the dependence has declined because New Delhi has begun diversifying imports with purchases from Russia, the US, West Africa, and Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) since the start of the West Asia conflict.
India’s stake in Hormuz is huge. Some 90 per cent of its LPG imports and more than 50 per cent of its LNG from Qatar and the UAE move through the strait, and its fertiliser supplies depend on it as well.
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Following Iran’s decision to close the Strait of Hormuz and impose restrictions on the passage of merchant shipping, India has repeatedly called for the unimpeded movement of energy supplies and freedom of navigation in international waterways.
The Strait of Hormuz, located between Iran and Oman, currently accounts for almost 25 per cent of global sea-borne oil supplies originating in West Asian countries.
His comments come at a time when shipping through the Strait of Hormuz is still restricted. According to the European Union (EU), the Revolutionary Guard’s navy has introduced a system that makes ships identify themselves and disclose what they are carrying and where they are headed in order to get through.
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