Jotaro Tamura, CEO of Japanese shipping company Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, told the Financial Times that shipping in the Strait of Hormuz would not resume for several weeks until there was certainty that the US-Iran deal was real and sustainable, Reuters reports.
The US and Israel launched a war against Iran on the 28th of February, effectively shutting down the Strait of Hormuz. It is the only waterway connecting the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea, and carries a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas, as well as other natural resources.
Mitsui O.S.K. Lines is one of Japan’s three largest shipping companies and operates around 900 ships, including large cargo ships, tankers and ferries. Shortly before US President Donald Trump announced the agreement, Tamura said that
a simple agreement between the countries involved would not be enough,
there must be real evidence, based on the situation in the Strait of Hormuz, that the companies can safely navigate their ships through this route. The Japanese added that, given previous experience, this would take at least a few weeks, if not a month.
Meanwhile, Trump said in a post on Truth Social that oil tankers have begun moving through the southern part of the strait, which he said was completely safe and in perfect condition.
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