A Turkish-owned ship waiting near Iran has been given permission to cross the Strait of Hormuz after Turkish authorities obtained Tehran's agreement, Turkish Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu said, according to Reuters.
In statements made to Turkish media on Thursday and published on Friday, Uraloglu said that Ankara had issued the highest security alert for the strait and maintained contacts with Iranian officials regarding the situation of the other 14 Turkish-owned ships in the area.
“Fifteen ships (with Turkish owners) were there; we got permission from the Iranian authorities for one of them, which had used an Iranian port, and it passed,” Uraloglu said.
The ministry stated that the ship that passed through the strait was the Rozana. It added that the Turkish-owned ships had a total of 171 crew members in the area.
The US-Israeli war against Iran has effectively shut down passage through the Strait of Hormuz, blocking oil tankers and other ships, fueling concerns about global energy supplies.
Donald Trump said the United States would escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz if necessary, adding – in an interview with Fox News that aired Friday – that the US would hit Iran “very hard in the next week.”
Asked about helping oil tankers cross the strategic strait, Trump said: “We would do it if we had to. But, you know, we hope things go very well. We'll see what happens.”
“We're going to hit them really hard in the next week,” he added in the interview with Fox's Brian Kilmeade, which aired in part on “Fox & Friends.”
