Iran says ‘brotherly’ Iraq’s ships can use Strait of Hormuz

The Iranian military said Iraq is exempt from shipping restrictions in the Strait of Hormuz that have strangled global energy flows for weeks.“Brotherly Iraq is exempt from any restrictions we have imposed on the Strait of Hormuz,” Iran’s military spokesman said in an Arabic-language video statement published by state-run Islamic Republic News Agency.The declaration has the potential to unleash as much as 3 million barrels a day of Iraqi oil cargoes. It also comes just days after a French container ship and Japanese-owned tanker crossed in what appeared to be the first transits by vessels linked to Western-aligned nations since the conflict spurred the Islamic Republic to effectively shut waterway.Vessel traffic through the vital strait has been picking up in the past week, though it remains unclear if Tehran granted permission as a result of diplomatic outreach or negotiations with individual shipping companies.Even so, the number of transits is a small fraction of the pre-war rate, when one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas sailed the narrows connecting the Persian Gulf to the Indian Ocean.Early in the war that has raged for five weeks, Iraq and other key Persian Gulf oil producers were forced to slash crude output as the primary export route closed and storage tanks filled to capacity.Operations at the Zubair oil field in Basra, Iraq, continue amid the disruption to shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and the US-Israeli conflict with Iran. Photo: Reuters