Vessel heading for Iran after being seized off Fujairah

• Ship taken by ‘unauthorised personnel’
• Anchored 38 nautical miles off UAE
• ‘The risk has not changed for shipping’

A commercial vessel has been seized off Fujairah in the UAE and is bound for Iranian waters, according to a notice issued by UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO).

The vessel was commandeered “by unauthorised personnel” while at anchor in the Gulf of Oman, 38 nautical miles off the eastern Emirati coast, the maritime body said.

UKMTO, a Royal Navy agency that acts as a liaison between military authorities and commercial shipping, said in the warning published on May 14 that the unidentified vessel was now heading towards Iranian waters.

On a weekly call held by maritime news outlet Lloyd’s List, its editor-in-chief Richard Meade said: “What that highlights to me is the fact that the risk really has not changed for shipping.”

Earlier this month, Iran established a government agency to approve ship transits and collect tolls from vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz. The so-called Persian Gulf Strait Authority will seek to administer movements through the chokepoint that normally carries 20 percent of global oil trade.

The proposal would formalise what the shipping industry has described as a “Tehran toll booth” – an Iranian-controlled corridor in which vessels are vetted before being granted passage through the narrow waterway.

Shipping analysts told the Lloyd’s List call the crisis could have knock-on consequences far beyond Hormuz, reshaping global norms around freedom of navigation and transit rights through strategic chokepoints.

Asked about a worst-case scenario in which the strait remained mired in long-term conflict, a maritime expert warned that other states could attempt to enforce similar controls elsewhere.

Ian Ralby, chief executive of US-based maritime consultancy I.R. Consilium, said: “If there is any kind of normalisation of the ability of a state, or even a non-state actor, to legitimise restrictions on freedom of navigation, either through a strait or an entire area, we are going to potentially have copycats in other places.”

“Why should Iran be getting to receive a toll or a permit scheme? Why can’t we do that here or there? All the chokepoints – the Singapore Strait, Malacca Strait, Gibraltar Strait, Bering Strait – could see an upsurge in that kind of activity.”

The debate widened last month after Indonesia’s finance minister suggested charging ships transiting the Malacca Strait, before other ministers quickly walked back the idea.

Ralby said the episode was nonetheless significant. “We already heard statements from Indonesia indicating a potential desire to return to discussions around whether tolling in the Strait of Malacca would be acceptable,” he said. “They backed away from those claims, but that’s a worrying sign.”

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Intense diplomatic efforts are underway to restore commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, with the International Maritime Organization (IMO) spearheading plans to evacuate 20,000 stranded seafarers.

An IMO evacuation proposal would use an existing traffic separation scheme, jointly operated by Oman and Iran since 1968 until the conflict disrupted operations this year, to move ships and stranded crews out of the contested waterway.

IMO secretary-general Arsenio Dominguez travelled to Muscat on Monday for talks with Oman’s foreign minister Sayyid Badr bin Hamad Al Busaidi on the agency’s Hormuz evacuation framework.

“The conversations are progressing,” Dominguez said. “We are discussing how to implement the evacuation framework. The objective is to resume operations in the region as they were before the conflict started. I remain positive with the engagement that I have.”