NEW YORK CITY: The UN is ready to deploy a confidence-building mechanism developed months ago to secure the safe transit of vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on Friday.
He framed the announcement as a message to the warring parties responsible for the current chokehold on commercial shipping passing through the waterway, who need to agree to the plan before it can be implemented.
Jorge Moreira da Silva, executive director of the UN Office for Project Services, said that a task force he has been coordinating developed a practical mechanism to facilitate safe, orderly and predictable maritime transit through the strait, with a specific focus on fertilizers and related raw materials to help prevent food crises.
“This is a reminder that (Moreira da Silva) and the task force put together this mechanism a few months ago now,” Dujarric told Arab News. “It is ready to deploy but obviously we need the agreement of the parties.
“It would include verification mechanisms, trust-building mechanisms. This is what UNOPS does; they’re ready to deploy fairly quickly.”
He said the point of the announcement was to underscore the reality of the current situation: “We are in this position right now where there’s just a stranglehold on commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.
“We saw it in the beginning of this conflict, we saw the impact it had on the price of fertilizers and food going out. So it’s just a very vocal and clear reminder that this option exists.”
Moreira da Silva said the mechanism was developed in consultation with relevant parties over a period of several months and has received overwhelming support from member states, particularly the most vulnerable countries dependent on fertilizer imports.
Its activation, however, remains contingent on the will of all parties to the conflict and the wider region, he added.
“It is time to give a chance to an operational mechanism to build confidence and to build trust,” Moreira da Silva said. He added that he continues to engage with relevant parties through the task force, and reiterated a call by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for restraint and deescalation of the conflict.
The Strait of Hormuz, a narrow chokepoint between Iran and Oman that links the Gulf to global shipping lanes, carries about a fifth of the world’s oil, and a significant share of fertilizer and raw-material exports.
Disruptions to maritime traffic through the strait since the conflict between the US and Iran began in late February have already driven up the prices of fertilizer and food, raising fears of a broader crisis in import-dependent regions.
