Amid Iran's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, about 70 ships are said to have transited the strait over the past three weeks with their automatic identification system (AIS) turned off while following U.S. military directions.
The New York Times (NYT) reported on May 31, local time, citing an anonymous U.S. government official, that U.S. Central Command has in recent weeks guided some commercial vessels plying the Persian Gulf on routes to transit the Strait of Hormuz.
According to the NYT, the ships sailed with their nighttime lights off and AIS disabled to avoid Iranian tracking. AIS is equipment that transmits a vessel's location, route and speed in real time. Turning it off makes it harder for outsiders to track a ship's movements, but it increases the risk of collision with other vessels.
Ship analysts believe the commercial vessels supported by the U.S. military transited the strait using a route along the relatively safer Omani coast. A U.S. Central Command Spokesperson told the NYT, "The U.S. military is not directly conducting escort missions, but we are in continuous communication so that commercial vessels can safely transit the Strait of Hormuz."
The passage of some ships under U.S. guidance shows that traffic through the strait has not been completely halted despite Iran's threats. Still, the number of transiting ships averages about three per day, which is far from normal compared with the prewar period when more than 100 ships moved each day.
The United States and Iran are currently at odds over passage through the Strait of Hormuz as well as the nuclear issue while conducting end-of-war talks. The United States maintains that the Strait of Hormuz, an international maritime corridor, must be freely open as before the war.
Iran, on the other hand, is seeking to strengthen control over the strait. It is pushing a plan to impose tolls of up to $2 million (about 3 billion won) per vessel in the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic chokepoint through which about 20% of the world's seaborne crude oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments pass.
The United States is moving to block this. The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) at the U.S. Department of the Treasury added the Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA), established by Iran under the pretext of managing passage through the Strait of Hormuz, to its sanctions list on the 27th. It is seen as a signal that the United States will not recognize Iran's unilateral imposition of tolls on international waterways.