MEA '14 Indian ships exit Strait of Hormuz safely'

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday said that 14 Indian ships have exited the Strait of Hormuz safely in the past few weeks, while 14 remain in the Persian Gulf.

“We have 10 Indian ships that have exited the Strait of Hormuz safely in the last few weeks. We have 14 Indian ships which are still in the Persian Gulf,” said MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal while addressing a weekly media briefing in New Delhi on Thursday.

Tensions continue in and around the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which about one-fifth of global oil trade passes, ever since the conflict erupted in West Asia.



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On Wednesday, Iran attacked a ship in the Strait of Hormuz that was on its way to Mundra Port in India. The attack came hours after US President Donald Trump had announced an indefinite ceasefire.

It was one of the two ships that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGC-N) announced it had attacked and taken over, according to the Iranian government-run Press TV.

IRGC-N identified the ships it attacked as the MSC-Francesca and the Epaminodas.

Two shipping monitoring sites said that Liberian-flagged Epaminodas was on its way to Mundra in Gujarat from the Jebel Ali port in Dubai.