Efforts underway to restart stranded ship evacuations in Persian Gulf, IMO chief says

The evacuation plan provided two channels for sailing out through the strait, either via Iranian waters in the north or Omani waters in the south.

The so-called traffic separation scheme, adopted by the IMO in 1968, established routing lanes through Iranian and Omani waters in the strait. This central section, however, is currently not usable due to the presence of what Dominguez estimated were around 80 explosive mines.

"It will take a few weeks before we can evacuate the still just over 500 vessels that need to be evacuated," he said.

"The quicker we can resume operations, of course, the quicker we can start increasing the numbers until we get that evacuation completed."

(Reporting by Jonathan Saul; Editing by Joe Bavier)