At least two Chinese cargo ships that were blocked by Iran last week as they tried to transit the Strait of Hormuz managed to traverse the key waterway on Monday, according to tracking data from the MarineTraffic website.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps naval forces appeared to make an example of the vessels, and one other, last week after President Trump suggested Tehran had given him the “present” of allowing eight vessels through the strait.
On Friday morning, data from MarineTraffic showed that two ultra-large container ships owned by China’s biggest shipping company, COSCO, had made a sharp U-turn after apparently trying to sail past Iran’s Larak Island, which analysts say Tehran has effectively turned into a toll booth to collect large fees from ships it grants permission to transit the strait.
In its statement on Friday, the IRGC said “the passage of any ship ‘to and from’ ports belonging to allies and supporters of the Zionist-American enemies, to any destination and via any corridor, is prohibited.”
Both of the COSCO ships had transited the strait on Monday, coming close to Larak Island, according to the MarineTraffic data.
MarineTraffic.com
There was no immediate statement from Iran regarding the ships’ passage.
Another bulk carrier, the Mac Hope, identifying itself as sailing under Chinese ownership and with a Chinese crew, also transited the strait on Monday, MarineTraffic data show. The vessel has been flagged as high-risk for transporting sanctioned cargo by the U.S. government since 2022.
During a Cabinet meeting on Thursday, Mr. Trump indicated that Iran was going to allow 10 oil tankers to pass through the Strait of Hormuz as a “present” to him. He didn’t say which country or countries the oil was from or where it was heading.
On Saturday, the foreign minister of Pakistan, which has been acting as an intermediary between Iran and the Trump administration, said Tehran had agreed to allow 20 Pakistani-flagged vessels – two per day – to transit the Strait of Hormuz, calling it “a harbinger of peace” and a “welcome and constructive gesture.”
Iranian state media said the same day, however, that the Islamic Republic’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi had, during a phone call with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, emphasized that the Strait of Hormuz remained closed to all vessels deemed linked to the U.S. and Israel.
Iran has said throughout the war that the strait remains open, but only to vessels it clears for transit – some of which it has charged fees of up to $2 million for passage, according to analysts.
