Resumption of Hormuz Strait traffic to take weeks despite US-Iran deal

Yotaro Tamura, executive director of Japan's Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, said in an interview with the Financial Times that ship traffic through the Hormuz Strait will not resume for several more weeks. He stressed that there must first be certainty that the agreement reached between the United States and Iran is real and sustainable.

The US and Israel launched a war against Iran on February 28, which virtually halted all traffic through the strait. The Hormuz Strait is the only waterway connecting the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea, and it carries one-fifth of the world's oil and natural gas.

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines is one of Japan's three largest shipping companies, operating around 900 vessels, including cargo ships, tankers, and ferries. Tamura stated that a simple agreement between countries is not enough; there must be concrete evidence based on the situation in the strait that companies can safely navigate their ships. Based on past experience, he estimated that this would take at least a few weeks, or even a month.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that oil tankers have already begun moving along the southern part of the strait, which he described as completely safe and in perfect condition.