ASEAN Beat | Diplomacy | Southeast Asia

Thailand Brokers Deal With Iran Allowing Vessels to Pass Strait of Hormuz

The arrangement with Tehran is likely to alleviate some of the worst impacts of the fuel shortages that threaten further to constrain the country’s economy.

A fishing boat in the Strait of Hormuz.

Thailand has struck a deal with Iran to allow its vessels and tankers to traverse the Strait of Hormuz, Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul announced on Saturday, potentially alleviating the country’s energy supply crunch.

“An agreement has been reached to allow Thai oil tankers to transit safely through the Strait of Hormuz,” Anutin said, as per the AFP news agency. “With this agreement in place, there is greater confidence that disruptions like those seen in early March will not recur.”

Anutin’s announcement came three weeks after a Thailand-flagged bulk carrier was attacked by an Iranian projectile in the strait, causing a fire onboard and forcing the crew to evacuate. Twenty of the 23 crew on board were evacuated to Oman, but three remain unaccounted for.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) later admitted responsibility for attacking two vessels on March 11, including the Mayuree Naree, claiming that they had “ignored the warnings of the IRGC naval forces.”

The incident prompted an official Thai diplomatic protest to Iran and a subsequent diplomatic engagement. Following talks between Thailand’s Foreign Ministry and the Iranian embassy in Bangkok, another Thai vessel, an oil tanker owned by the local energy firm Bangchak Corporation Plc, was permitted to pass the Strait on March 23, after being stuck for nearly two weeks in the Persian Gulf.

Commodities shipping through the Strait of Hormuz fell by a remarkable 95 percent between March 1 and 26, according to the maritime tracking platform Kpler. The effective closure of the Strait has scrambled global energy markets and caused negative ripple effects across the world. Few regions have been hit as hard as Asia, the destination of more than 80 percent of the crude oil and liquefied natural gas that........

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