Pakistan Navy escorting ships on country’s own trade routes, not Strait of Hormuz— official
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s navy is escorting merchant vessels along its own maritime routes and not on the Strait of Hormuz, a security official with direct knowledge of the operation confirmed on Wednesday, amid a global energy crisis triggered by the key passageway’s closure.
Pakistani military’s media wing announced on Monday it had launched ‘Operation Muhafiz-ul-Bahr’ in which the country’s navy ships were escorting merchant vessels “to ensure the uninterrupted flow of national energy supplies and the security of sea lines of communication.”
The Strait of Hormuz is the narrow mouth of the Arabian Gulf through which about a fifth of the world’s oil passes. The US-Israeli war against Iran has halted tanker traffic on the key route. Iran has attacked several ships in the Strait of Hormuz and threatened any ships that try to pass through it.
A Pakistani security official stressed that the navy’s Operation Muhafiz-ul-Bahr is focused only on Pakistan’s own sea lines of communication, particularly the routes linking Karachi with the Gulf region and the Red Sea.
