The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) condemns utterly the seizure of the MSC Aries earlier today by Iranian forces. The welfare of the 25 innocent seafarers that are now being held hostage are the highest priority and ICS calls for the immediate release of the seafarers and the ship.
The vessel was seized at 06.37 UTC today – 13 April – 50 nautical miles north-east of Fujairah, United Arab Emirates. The action is a direct contravention of international law and is an assault on the fundamental principle of freedom of navigation.
Guy Platten, Secretary General of the International Chamber of Shipping commented: “Iran’s seizure of the MSC Aries is a flagrant breach of international law and an assault on freedom of navigation. This reprehensible attack against a merchant ship once again places innocent seafarers on the front lines of geopolitical conflict. Our thoughts are with the 25 Seafarers who are now captives of Iran, and with the families who are now in fear of their loved ones’ safety. Iran must release the ship as a matter of urgency.”
Ships transiting the region should conduct a thorough threat assessment and liaise closely with military forces to ensure they are fully protected against further possible aggression by Iranian forces.
MSC Aries (15,8097 DWT) is Portuguese (Madeira) flagged, chartered to MSC and owned by Gortal Shipping Inc.
Peter Sand, Chief Analyst at ocean container freight benchmarking platform Xeneta, commented: “An already bad situation in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden has just got worse and could put ocean freight container imports and oil exports in the Middle East at risk.
“We don’t yet know the full details of the incident in the Strait of Hormuz, but any widening of the conflict which has already resulted in huge disruption to ocean freight services in the Red Sea region would be extremely concerning.
“For example, Dubai is a regional hub for imports as well as sea-air corridors, with containers arriving by ocean via the Strait of Hormuz for onward travel by air to Europe and North America. If ships are impacted from sailing into the Arabian Gulf then the disruption would be considerable.”
