A container ship declaring itself to have a French owner has passed through the Strait of Hormuz, according Marine Traffic data analysed by AFP on Friday, April 3.
The Maltese-flagged Kribi belonging to the French maritime transport group CMA CGM crossed the strait – which has been virtually blocked by Iran since early in the Middle East war – to exit the Gulf on Thursday afternoon, the maritime tracking website showed.
It appears to be the first known transit by a major European shipping group since March 1, when Iranian attacks against ships near the Strait of Hormuz, in retaliation for US-Israel strikes, reduced crossings to a trickle.
The ship was off Muscat, Oman, early Friday, still broadcasting the message "owner France" on its transponder system in the field usually used to give the destination. The vessel's navigation data showed it crossed via a new Iranian-approved route through its waters, dubbed the "Tehran Toll Booth" by leading shipping journal Lloyd's List.
At least two vessels have paid to use the corridor around Larak Island just off Iran's coast, a Lloyd's List Intelligence analyst said in a briefing on Thursday. The few commercial vessels transiting through the waterway with their transponders on since the start of the war have passed close to Larak Island, according to maritime data analysed by AFP.
