14 Indian ships exit Strait of Hormuz safely: MEA

India confirmed 14 ships have safely exited the Strait of Hormuz while 14 remain in the Persian Gulf amid rising tensions. Iran has attacked multiple vessels, including India-bound ships, prompting diplomatic protests from New Delhi over maritime safety and regional instability

New Delhi: The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday said that 14 Indian ships have exited the Strait of Hormuz safely in the past few weeks, while 14 remain in the Persian Gulf.

“We have 10 Indian ships that have exited the Strait of Hormuz safely in the last few weeks. We have 14 Indian ships which are still in the Persian Gulf,” said MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal while addressing a weekly media briefing in New Delhi on Thursday.

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Tensions continue in and around the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which about one-fifth of global oil trade passes, ever since the conflict erupted in West Asia. .

On Wednesday, Iran attacked a ship in the Strait of Hormuz that was on its way to Mundra Port in India. The attack came hours after US President Donald Trump had announced an indefinite ceasefire.

It was one of the two ships that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGC-N) announced it had attacked and taken over, according to the Iranian government-run Press TV.

IRGC-N identified the ships it attacked as the MSC-Francesca and the Epaminodas.

Two shipping monitoring sites said that Liberian-flagged Epaminodas was on its way to Mundra in Gujarat from the Jebel Ali port in Dubai.

Marinetraffic.com and vesselfinder.com said that the container ship had been scheduled to reach Mundra on Thursday.

According to steamshipmutual.com which tracks ship ownership and insurance, the ship is owned by a Greek company, Kalmar Maritime LLC.

On Saturday, Iran attacked two Indian ships in the Strait that had received permission to traverse it.

India lodged a strong protest with Iran over those incidents and Iran’s Ambassador to India, Mohammad Fathali, was called in for a meeting with Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri over the shooting incident involving Indian vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.

During the meeting, India conveyed its deep concerns over the incident involving two Indian-flagged ships that came under fire from gunboats of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

“The Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran in New Delhi was called in by the Ministry of External Affairs for a meeting with Foreign Secretary this evening. During the meeting, Foreign Secretary conveyed India’s deep concern at the shooting incident earlier today involving two Indian-flagged ships in the Strait of Hormuz,” read a statement issued by the MEA spokesperson last Saturday.

“He noted the importance that India attached to the safety of merchant shipping and mariners and recalled that Iran had earlier facilitated the safe passage of several ships bound for India. Reiterating his concern at this serious incident of firing on merchant ships, Foreign Secretary urged the Ambassador to convey India’s views to the authorities in Iran and resume at the earliest the process of facilitating India-bound ships across the Strait,” it added.