SINGAPORE: Iran’s Revolutionary Guards halted two Qatar liquefied natural gas tankers that had been heading toward the Strait of Hormuz on Monday morning and instructed them to hold position without explanation, a source told Reuters on Monday.
Iran had permitted the vessels to transit the strait under an agreement reached with the United States last week via Pakistani mediation, said the source who had been briefed on the agreement and spoke on condition of anonymity.
“This was part of an arrangement negotiated as part of talks spearheaded by Pakistan last week,” the source said.
Both ships were positioned off the coast of the United Arab Emirates on Monday evening and had not transited Hormuz, ship-tracking data showed.
Had the vessels successfully crossed the strait, they would have been the first transit of LNG cargoes through the waterway since the start of the US-Israeli war with Iran on February 28.
