The new battle in the Strait of Hormuz
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What is the current situation in the Strait of Hormuz?
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Is the Iran war ceasefire over? With Iran firing on the UAE again and the US destroying Iranian military boats, it looks that way. But what should we expect next after Donald Trump launched so-called Project Freedom to rescue commercial ships stranded in the Strait of Hormuz? Today, a former Australian Navy warfare officer has travelled through the Strait, Jennifer Parker, on how it might all play out. I'm Sam Hawley on Gadigal land in Sydney. This is ABC News Daily.
The shaky ceasefire in the Middle East is under fresh pressure tonight, with US President Donald Trump ordering a major operation involving thousands of troops and aircraft. President Trump has said that the United States Navy has escorted two ships, but two ships really won't mean anything. It's like a drop in the oil, if you like. The US military says it's destroyed six Iranian gunboats and intercepted multiple attempted strikes on the UAE. This comes after Tehran launched multiple cruise missiles, drones and small boats at American Navy ships and commercial vessels.
Jennifer, Iranian drones and missiles have been launched at the UAE. Iran has fired at American warships. Iranian boats have been destroyed by the US military. Are we at this point moving back to a full-scale war? Is the ceasefire over in your view?
Well, it would seem, given that the UAE has come under attack, that we are seeing a return to the hot war. And it was a fairly significant attack, so at least 15 missiles, 12 of which were ballistic missiles and a range of drones. So Iran was always going to respond significantly to any US attempts to free up shipping going through that strait, and that's what we've seen in the last 24 hours.
As a former naval officer, you have been to the Strait of Hormuz before, right? Now, there are, of course, at the moment, a whole heap of ships, mainly cargo ships, stranded there because of this blockade, this dual blockade by Iran and the United States.
What has happened is because ships have been attacked, civilian ships have been attacked by Iran, they have predominantly stopped going through the straits. So normally you'd see 138 go through the strait a day. Sometimes we're seeing five or six, sometimes 12. Most of those linked to Iran. We have about 2,000-ish ships trapped inside the Gulf and probably about 20,000 sailors. And those ships that are trapped in there sitting in anchorages have been attacked by Iran. So I imagine for any merchant mariner sitting in there, it would be an incredibly intense situation because it's not clear how Iran is determining what ships it attacks. So you'd be sitting there thinking, I might be attacked at any moment.
You're having shortages of water and food. It's quite a dire situation for the civilian merchant mariners trapped in the Gulf.
Yes, because these are, as you mentioned, civilian ships. So there's 20,000 seafarers stuck on these ships in the strait. Presumably they'd like to get home, go back to their families. I mean, how difficult would it be for them right now? What would the conditions be like, do you think?
Yeah, I think it would be incredibly difficult. And this is one of the things, when we report on these kind of incidents around the world, we often forget about the plight of merchant mariners, who are the people who actually make our maritime trade and our international economy work. I think they likely have shortages of water, likely shortages of food, living under constant fear of bombardment, probably little communications with their family.
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