European Countries Negotiate Strait of Hormuz Passage with Iran

Kathmandu. European countries are in talks with Tehran to open the passage of ships through the 'Strait of Hormuz', Iranian state television reported on Saturday.

State television said, "We have received information today that after ships from East Asian countries, especially China, Japan, and Pakistan, passed through, Europeans have also started negotiations with the Revolutionary Guards Navy."

Since the start of the war with the United States and Israel on February 28, Iran has largely blocked the passage of ships and transportation through this important waterway. A ceasefire between the United States and Iran has been in effect since April 8.

Its grip on the waterway has shaken the world market. The United States has announced its own naval blockade of Iranian ports, but despite this restriction, Iran is allowing and blocking the passage of ships it desires through here.

In peacetime, one-fifth of the world's fuel and other goods are supplied through this route.

The Guards, the ideological branch of the Iranian army, said in a statement that Iran has recently allowed dozens of ships, including those from China, to pass through after agreeing to Iran's Hormuz Strait management rules.

Since the start of the war, Iran has repeatedly warned that maritime transport through Hormuz 'will not return to pre-war conditions'. Last month, it started receiving revenue from the taxes imposed on the waterway.

On Saturday, Ibrahim Azizi, head of the Iranian parliament's National Security Commission, said, "Iran has prepared a commercial mechanism to manage passage through the strait."

He further said, "Only commercial ships and parties cooperating with Iran in this process will be able to benefit from it."

"This route will remain closed to the operators of the so-called 'Freedom Project'," he said, referring to the temporary US military operation to guide commercial ships stranded in the Hormuz Strait.