Shipping companies said on Monday that President Trump’s offer to provide them safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz fell short of the sort of arrangements that would persuade them to make the trip.
Mr. Trump said on Sunday that the United States would “guide” commercial vessels through the strait, which Iran has effectively closed since the war in the Persian Gulf started two months ago. But the president provided few details on how the program, Project Freedom, would work.
On Monday, Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of the military’s Central Command, said U.S. warships had shot down cruise missiles and drones that Iran fired at the ships and commercial vessels that the Navy was guiding through the Strait of Hormuz. Central Command said two American commercial ships had sailed through the strait. Maersk, the Danish shipping giant, said Monday that one of its vessels, a vehicle carrier flying the U.S. maritime flag, had gone through the strait.
But there were reports that other ships were struck. The United Arab Emirates accused Iran of launching a drone attack on an oil tanker owned by ADNOC, its state oil company, according to the Emirati state news agency. And a South Korean cargo ship caught fire on Monday after an explosion in the strait, the South Korean foreign ministry said.
Four ships went through the strait on Monday, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. Before the war, around 130 vessels made the passage daily.
Fearing attacks by Iran on their vessels, shipping companies have been reluctant to send vessels through the strait. They say Iran needs to be part of any plan to move large numbers of vessels through the waterway.
Ali Abdollahi, a top Iranian military commander, warned “all commercial ships and oil tankers to refrain from any attempt to transit without coordination with the armed forces,” according to an Iranian state media report on Monday.
Without an agreement from Iran, “there is a risk of hostilities breaking out again,” said Jakob P. Larsen, the chief safety and security officer of the Baltic and International Maritime Council, which represents companies in the maritime sector.
“It is unclear whether Project Freedom is sustainable in the longer run or whether it will be a limited operation to get some of the trapped ships out,” Mr. Larsen added.
Tom Bartosak-Harlow, a spokesman for the International Chamber of Shipping, a maritime trade group, said Mr. Trump’s plan lacked detail.
“There is much uncertainty around what Project Freedom means in practice, but any plans put in place must be done in a coordinated and transparent manner,” he said in a statement. Mr. Bartosak-Harlow said the chamber was calling on all countries, Iran included, “to work together to seek a swift and transparent resolution to restore freedom of navigation.”
Hapag-Lloyd, a large container shipping company, has several vessels stuck in the Persian Gulf that it would like to send through the strait. “At this stage, our risk assessment remains unchanged, and the Strait of Hormuz remains closed for Hapag-Lloyd transits until further notice,” the company said in a statement on Monday.
Iran’s stranglehold on the strait has cut off a significant proportion of the world’s supply of oil and natural gas.
Most of the ships that have gone through the waterway since the war began have taken a route that runs close to Iran’s coastline, indicating that the ship operators got Iran’s permission to make the passage.
Insurance costs are a main reason cargo ships are not traveling through the strait, Ana Subasic, a trade risk analyst at Kpler, said in an email. “Even if a captain is willing to sail, owners, lenders, charterers and cargo interests may refuse to,” she added.
“Project Freedom has a moderate chance of extracting some vessels, especially U.S.-flagged or highly coordinated low-risk vessels, but a low chance of fully reopening Hormuz quickly unless it becomes legally clear, less expensive and diplomatically coordinated,” Ms. Subasic said.
The U.S. military commanders said they were hoping that Project Freedom would encourage more ships to venture through the strait.
“We’ve now opened a passage through the Strait of Hormuz to allow for the free flow of commerce to proceed,” Admiral Cooper said on a conference call with reporters on Monday.
He declined to say how Central Command would determine which commercial ships to guide. But he said the command had reached out to dozens of ships and shipping companies to encourage them to use the protection of the U.S. military — but not specifically naval escorts — to defy Iran’s blockade of the strait.
In a statement about the transit of its car-carrier vessel, Maersk thanked the U.S. military “for its professionalism and effective coordination in making this operation possible.”
Hundreds of ships are still trapped in the Strait of Hormuz, leaving their crews stranded.
“Lives of sailors are in utmost danger — they have such scarcity of drinking water,” said P.A. Khan, who oversees the branch of the Maritime Union of India in Chennai, India. “What Trump is saying makes things more difficult and not easier.”
The International Maritime Organization, which monitors developments, said about 20,000 mariners on around 1,600 vessels were trapped in the Persian Gulf. “My call is to release the seafarers because they are not at fault,” Arsenio Dominguez, the group’s secretary-general, said in a statement last week. “The situation is not improving.”
Nearly 30 ships have been attacked since the war began, according to the organization.
Suhasini Raj contributed reporting from New Delhi; Vivian Nereim from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; and Choe Sang-Hun from Seoul.
