The Strait of Hormuz Crisis: IMO's Race Against Time and the 40-Nation Coalition

The Crisis: A Chokepoint Becomes a Flashpoint

For decades, the Strait of Hormuz was the world's most indispensable — and most quietly anxious — waterway. At its narrowest point, barely 34 kilometres separate the coasts of Iran and Oman, yet through this sliver of sea flowed the lifeblood of the modern economy. Before the war, roughly a quarter of the world's seaborne oil trade and one-fifth of its liquefied natural gas transited daily without incident, trusting in the fragile architecture of international maritime law. That architecture collapsed on 28 February 2026.

Following US and Israeli airstrikes on Tehran — the opening salvo of a fast-metastasising regional war — Iran moved to shut down the strait entirely. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) seized effective control of the waterway. The effect was near-instantaneous. Tanker traffic, which had already begun to fall as tensions spiked, dropped by about 70 percent within days and then to effectively zero, with over 150 ships anchoring outside the strait to avoid risks. 

Iran's blockade sent global oil prices soaring above $100 per barrel — a jump of roughly 40 percent from before the war — forcing countries, particularly in Asia, to ration fuel and cut industrial production. Malaysia ordered all civil servants to work from home in a bid to conserve energy. 

Inside the Persian Gulf, the picture was bleaker still. Around 800 ships engaged in international trade — including oil tankers, bulk carriers and container vessels — became potentially subject to evacuation, carrying vital energy supplies and commodities. With an average of 25 crew members per vessel, this translated to roughly 20,000 seafarers directly exposed to the risks. 

The Human Toll: 20,000 Seafarers, the Invisible Hostages

Behind the oil price graphs and geopolitical manoeuvring is a human catastrophe that has drawn comparatively little public attention. Filipino deckhands, Indian engineers, Ukrainian officers and Indonesian crew members found themselves stranded aboard vessels in the Persian Gulf — neither combatants nor diplomats, but workers trapped inside a war zone by no act of their own.

IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez confirmed that since the beginning of the conflict, the IMO had verified 29 attacks on vessels in the Gulf and around the strait, resulting in the deaths of at least 10 seafarers and damage to multiple ships. Around 20,000 seafarers on approximately 1,600 vessels remained trapped in the Gulf and unable to leave, with several vessels seized and detained in the region. 

The attacks continued into May with grim regularity. On 3 May, an unidentified bulk carrier was attacked by several small boats west of Bandar Sirik, Iran. The following day, the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company-owned tanker Barakah was struck by two drones north of Fujairah. On 5 May, the CMA CGM San Antonio was struck by a cruise missile in the Strait of Hormuz, injuring eight crew members. 

By mid-May, the IMO had confirmed 38 attacks and 11 seafarer deaths. Around 20,000 seafarers had been unable to leave the Arabian Gulf, with the blockade now in its 72nd day. Only around 450 seafarers had been assisted with crew changes or repatriation by that point. 

Dominguez warned that with the conflict stretching into its eighth week, supplies on vessels stranded in the Gulf — including water, food and fuel — were expected to start running short. He called on all flag states, industry bodies and seafarers' countries of nationality to provide necessary assistance, including remote support, helplines and communication with families. 

The IMO Response: "Fragmented Responses Are No Longer Sufficient"

The IMO moved with unusual urgency for a body more accustomed to technical regulation than geopolitical crisis management. The IMO Council met on 18–19 March 2026 in an extraordinary session and strongly condemned the threats and attacks against vessels and the purported closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The Council called for a coordinated international approach and reiterated that the exercise of navigational rights and freedoms by merchant and commercial vessels, in accordance with international law, must be respected. 

The Council called for the establishment of a safe maritime framework, as a provisional and urgent measure, to facilitate the safe evacuation of merchant ships currently confined within the Gulf region, and directed Secretary-General Dominguez to take the necessary immediate actions to initiate it. 

The IMO's Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez travelled to Muscat for talks with Oman's foreign minister Sayyid Badr bin Hamad Al Busaidi on the agency's evacuation framework. The proposal would use an existing IMO-administered traffic separation scheme that has been jointly operated by Muscat and Tehran since 1968 to move ships and stranded crew out of the contested waterway. 

The framework utilises the eastbound traffic lane of the existing, agreed-upon traffic separation scheme. IMO worked closely with relevant states and industry partners to develop a list of affected vessels, which would be maintained by the IMO as part of the oversight of the framework. Prior to implementation, all parties to the conflict must agree to refrain from any attacks on maritime assets in the region during the evacuation and ensure all military assets remain clear of transiting vessels. An IMO official summarised the situation starkly: everything is ready to be implemented — once it is safe to do so.

At the 40-nation foreign ministers' meeting, Dominguez delivered his most forceful public statement of the crisis: "Fragmented responses are no longer sufficient to resolve this crisis. What is urgently required is diplomatic engagement, practical and neutral solutions, and coordinated international action." 

The IMO also became a member of a new dedicated Task Force established by the UN Secretary-General, led by Under-Secretary-General Jorge Moreira da Silva of UNOPS, and including UNCTAD and the International Chamber of Commerce, to work on technical mechanisms specifically designed to meet humanitarian needs in the Strait of Hormuz. 

On Iran's push to collect tolls from transiting vessels, the IMO was unequivocal. Iran was still pursuing plans to impose a toll on ships passing through the strait, which the IMO previously said would be illegal. The Secretary-General stressed that such a system had no basis in international maritime law. 

The 40-Nation Coalition: Britain, France, and a World Scrambling to Act

On 2 April 2026, over 40 countries launched a coalition to secure free passage through the Strait of Hormuz, with British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper chairing the inaugural virtual meeting. The multinational coalition committed to the "collective mobilisation of our full range of diplomatic and economic tools" to enable a "safe and sustained opening" of the waterway. 

France, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Canada, Australia and the United Arab Emirates were among the participating countries. European nations had initially refused to get involved, fearing they would be dragged into the war. But as the war continued and oil and gas prices spiked globally, EU nations decided to join the coalition, an EU official told Reuters.

Notably absent from the talks was the United States. Trump had earlier urged other nations to "build up some delayed courage" and restore free navigation, telling them to "go to the strait and just take it, protect it, use it for yourselves." The US did not participate in the April 2 virtual meeting. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had signed a G7 statement underlining the "absolute necessity to permanently restore safe and toll-free freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz," but described the operation to reopen the waterway as a "post-conflict necessity." 

The military dimension of the coalition sharpened in mid-May. The United Kingdom announced it would deploy autonomous mine-hunting systems, counter-drone technology, Typhoon fighter jets, and the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Dragon as part of the multinational maritime security mission, backed by £115 million in new funding. The UK also revealed that Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessel RFA Lyme Bay is being upgraded to operate as a potential "mothership" for autonomous systems supporting future Hormuz operations. The mission, led jointly by the UK and France, would become operational "when conditions allow." 

Bahrain was separately preparing a UN Security Council resolution seeking to authorise states, alone or together, to use "all necessary means commensurate with the circumstances" to enable safe transit. 

Iran's Position: Selective Access and the Toll Question

Iran has not pursued a blanket closure so much as a selective one, using access to the strait as a tool of geopolitical leverage. On 26 March, Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi announced that ships owned by five nations — China, Russia, India, Iraq and Pakistan — would be allowed to transit. Malaysian and Thai vessels were later granted access following separate diplomatic talks. Iran also agreed to allow humanitarian and fertiliser shipments through to address the disruption to the fertiliser supply during the spring planting season. 

On 19 April, the head of the Iranian parliament's construction committee said that the parliament was planning to pass a law barring boats from "hostile" countries from passing the strait, and requiring all others to pay tolls. According to media reports, Iran's IRGC had already begun operating a "toll booth" system to control vessel traffic. 

Even after a ceasefire was announced on 8 April, the strait did not reopen in any meaningful sense. On 9 April, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company CEO Sultan Al Jaber confirmed that the strait was still not open despite the ceasefire, because Iran was restricting and conditioning traffic. He added that 230 loaded oil tankers were waiting inside the Gulf. 

The Legal Question: Who Controls the Strait?

At the centre of this crisis is a fundamental legal question that Iran has deliberately weaponised. The potential closure of the Strait of Hormuz is, according to some analysts, a violation of international law. Iran is violating the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which it has signed but has not ratified. UNCLOS codifies the right of "transit passage" through international straits — a right that cannot legally be suspended even during wartime. 

Iran's insistence on sovereignty over access, its ceasefire conditions demanding international recognition of that authority, and its toll legislation all represent deliberate attempts to rewrite the legal basis on which global shipping has operated for decades. The IMO, the G7, and the 40-nation coalition have all drawn a clear line: toll-free, unimpeded navigation is non-negotiable.

The Broader Economic Shockwave

Iranian attacks on QatarEnergy facilities at Ras Laffan in March destroyed nearly a fifth of Qatar's LNG export capacity, with repairs expected to take up to five years. Before a "go dark" order was issued, around 40 ships were transmitting their positions around Ras Laffan. By mid-May, only one vessel was publicly transmitting AIS data, with vessel volume down nearly 90 percent. 

Major shipping operators have made their position clear. Maersk confirmed it is continuing to avoid Hormuz transits entirely amid uncertainty over the fragile ceasefire. Both Iraq and Pakistan have cut individual deals with Iran to ship oil and LNG from the Gulf — a demonstration of Tehran's ability to play favourites and fragment any unified international response.

Can the Coalition Succeed?

The 40-nation coalition represents the broadest international maritime security effort in a generation. But it faces a structural problem: it is avowedly defensive and will not operate during active hostilities, meaning its effectiveness depends entirely on diplomatic breakthroughs it cannot itself produce.

The IMO's evacuation framework may be the more immediately actionable instrument. If Dominguez can secure agreement from both Iran and Oman for a maritime ceasefire corridor, the 1968 Traffic Separation Scheme could begin moving stranded vessels east in organised convoys — at minimum resolving the humanitarian emergency of 20,000 trapped seafarers before the broader political settlement is reached. Dominguez described talks with Iran and Oman as "progressing" following his visit to Muscat, and said: "As long as I maintain that dialogue, and the objective is to resume operations in the region as they were before the conflict started, I remain positive about the engagement that I have with the countries." 

What is clear is that the stakes could not be higher. The Strait of Hormuz is not a regional waterway — it is a global artery. Every barrel of oil blocked, every LNG cargo delayed, every stranded seafarer represents a cost distributed across billions of people who have never heard of the IRGC's toll booths or the IMO's traffic separation schemes. The coalition of 40 nations is an acknowledgment of that shared cost, and a bet that collective action can prevail where individual interest has stalled.

Sources

1. Al Jazeera — Can Starmer's 40-nation coalition open the Strait of Hormuz? (April 2, 2026) — aljazeera.com
2. AGBI — IMO and 40-nation coalition prepare bid to reopen Hormuz (May 14, 2026) — agbi.com
3. IMO Official Page — Middle East: Strait of Hormuz — imo.org
4. GovPing / IMO — IMO Urges Diplomatic Action as Seafarer Crisis Grows (April 23, 2026) — changeflow.com/govping
5. Euronews — Over 40 countries launch coalition to secure Strait of Hormuz (April 2, 2026) — euronews.com
6. Wikipedia — 2026 Strait of Hormuz crisis — wikipedia.org
7. gCaptain — UK Leads 40-Nation Defensive Mission to Secure Strait of Hormuz (May 2026) — gcaptain.com
8. UN News — Uncertainty continues over safety in the Strait of Hormuz (May 4, 2026) — news.un.org
9. IMO Press Briefing — "Fragmented responses are no longer sufficient" — imo.org
10. The National — UN says 11 seafarers killed in 38 attacks in Arabian Gulf (May 13, 2026) — thenationalnews.com
11. IMO Press Briefing — IMO condemns attacks on shipping, calls for safe-passage framework (March 19, 2026) — imo.org
12. CGTN — Evacuation plan for stranded seafarers awaits safe conditions, IMO says (April 25, 2026) — news.cgtn.com