IMO pauses Gulf ship evacuation after suspected attack near Oman

A suspected attack on the Singapore-flagged Ever Lovely off Oman forced the International Maritime Organization to pause its evacuation program through the Strait of Hormuz. British maritime authorities said the vessel was hit by a projectile, with no casualties and no environmental damage reported. The IMO said it was not part of the evacuation program.

The pause came just two days after the IMO launched its voluntary operation on June 23 to help more than 11,000 stranded seafarers and hundreds of commercial ships move out of the Persian Gulf. The plan would involve between 500 and 600 commercial vessels and use two temporary routes, a northern lane near Iran and a southern lane through Omani and Emirati waters. The Strait of Hormuz carried about a fifth of global daily oil and liquefied natural gas supplies before the conflict, and benchmark oil prices rose 1.9% after the attack.

Initial IMO data showed 57 ships carrying an estimated 1,100 seafarers had already transited under the plan by the morning of June 25. The evacuation effort began after a memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Iran and a ceasefire deal.

The warning signs sharpened hours before the strike when Tehran told vessels to avoid routes it had not approved. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards later reiterated that safe passage would only be possible through routes designated by Iran. The June 25 attack was separate from the evacuation operation, but it landed in a corridor where 14 seafarers have been killed in attacks on shipping since the emergency began.