{"id":6275,"date":"2026-04-25T09:35:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T09:35:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/04\/25\/capture-of-ships-by-us-iran-violates-international-law-shipping-body-says\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T09:35:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T09:35:20","slug":"capture-of-ships-by-us-iran-violates-international-law-shipping-body-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/04\/25\/capture-of-ships-by-us-iran-violates-international-law-shipping-body-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Capture of ships by US, Iran violates international law, shipping body says"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><em>International Chamber of Shipping official tells Al Jazeera the US and Iran should immediately release crews of captured vessels.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p>A prominent shipping organisation has condemned the United States and Iran\u2019s tit-for-tat capture of commercial ships and is calling for the immediate release of their crews.<\/p>\n<p>In an interview with Al Jazeera, John Stawpert, marine director of the International Chamber of Shipping, said seafarers must be allowed to go about their business \u201cfreely and without persecution\u201d.<\/p>\n<section>\n<h2>Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n<p><span>list of 4 items<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>list 1 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/4\/24\/iran-iraq-tanker-war-redux-why-the-strait-of-hormuz-crisis-is-different\">Iran-Iraq Tanker War redux? Why the Strait of Hormuz crisis is different<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 2 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/4\/24\/how-long-can-iran-survive-the-uss-hormuz-blockade\">How long can Iran survive the US\u2019s Hormuz blockade?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 3 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/4\/24\/us-envoys-head-to-pakistan-raising-hopes-of-peace-talks-with-irans-araghchi\">US sending envoys to Pakistan, raising hopes of talks with Iran\u2019s Araghchi<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 4 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/economy\/2026\/4\/24\/oil-rises-above-106-per-barrel-as-us-iran-deadlocked-in-strait-of-hormuz\">Oil rises above $106 per barrel as US, Iran deadlocked in Strait of Hormuz<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>Stawpert, whose organisation is the top trade association for merchant shipowners and operators worldwide, called the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/4\/23\/how-iran-raised-hormuz-stakes-by-capturing-ships\">capture of the vessels<\/a> an affront to freedom of navigation as enshrined in international law.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll these people are doing is transporting trade. And really, we can\u2019t have a situation where ships are being seized, ultimately for political ends, to prove a political point,\u201d said Stawpert, whose organisation represents about 80 percent of the world\u2019s merchant fleet.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese\u00a0are innocent farers and they should be allowed to go about their jobs without fear of, essentially, imprisonment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Stawpert\u00a0said Iran\u2019s stated wish to charge tolls in the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/4\/24\/iran-iraq-tanker-war-redux-why-the-strait-of-hormuz-crisis-is-different\">Strait of Hormuz<\/a> had no basis in international law and would set a dangerous precedent.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you can do it in the Strait of Hormuz, why can\u2019t you do it in the Strait of Gibraltar, say, or the Straits of Malacca?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n<p>Stawpert also said the US President Donald Trump\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/4\/24\/how-long-can-iran-survive-the-uss-hormuz-blockade\">naval blockade<\/a> of Iranian ports had heaped further uncertainty on shipping companies already reeling from Iran\u2019s effective closure of the strait.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t know what conditions are in place. We don\u2019t know what the targeting criteria of Iran are really,\u201d Stawpert said. \u201cAnd so we then have another state coming in, effectively doing the same thing through the blockade of the straits\u201d.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4520631\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4520631\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2026-04-24T214138Z_1966964344_RC2STKAW4GT1_RTRMADP_3_IRAN-CRISIS-IRGC-SEIZURE-1-1777095667.jpg?w=770&#038;resize=770%2C433&#038;quality=80\" alt=\"SH\" fetchpriority=\"low\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4520631\">The Epaminondas captured by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in the Strait of Hormuz, Iran, \u00a0April 24, 2026 [Meysam Mirzadeh\/Tasnim\/WANA via Reuters]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The US and Iranian militaries have each announced the capture of two <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/4\/22\/iranian-gunboat-fires-on-container-ship-off-oman-coast\">commercial vessels<\/a> over the past week as Washington and Tehran continue to face off in the strait and in waters beyond the Gulf.<\/p>\n<p>The US defence department on Thursday said it had captured the Iran-linked Majestic X as it was transporting sanctioned oil in the Indian Ocean, days after announcing the interception of another ship, Tifani.<\/p>\n<p>Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on Wednesday said it seized the Panamanian-flagged MSC Francesca and the Greek-owned Epaminondas for \u201coperating without the necessary permits and tampering with navigation systems\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The Philippines\u2019 Department of Migrant Workers on Wednesday confirmed 15 Filipino seafarers were on the two vessels.<\/p>\n<p>Officials said they had been assured by Iranian authorities that all the crew were \u201cunharmed\u201d and \u201csafe.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Montenegro\u2019s maritime minister, Filip Radulovic, said in an interview with the state broadcaster earlier this week that four Montenegrin crew on the MSC Francesca were \u201cfine\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>There have\u00a0been no official\u00a0updates on the\u00a0condition of the\u00a0crews\u00a0on the vessels captured by US forces.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt seems they\u2019re not being maltreated,\u201d Stawpert said. \u201cBut even so, that\u2019s not really the point. The point is they shouldn\u2019t be in custody in the first place\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Stawpert also expressed concern for the well-being of an estimated 20,000 seafarers who have been left stranded in the Gulf due to the effective closure of the strait.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTheir welfare is also a priority for us,\u201d he said. \u201cThe psychological burden, I think, will be beginning to tell on them after seven weeks now of what\u2019s, to all intents and purposes, house arrest\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Stawpert called on both the US and Iran to respect freedom of navigation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLet\u2019s\u00a0resume freedom of navigation and respect the right to innocent passage as soon as we\u00a0possibly can,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The blockage of the strait, which usually carries about one-fifth of global oil and natural gas supplies, has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/economy\/2026\/4\/24\/oil-rises-above-106-per-barrel-as-us-iran-deadlocked-in-strait-of-hormuz\">driven up fuel prices<\/a> worldwide and forced many governments to start emergency energy-saving measures.<\/p>\n<p>Traffic in the waterway remains a fraction of pre-war levels, with reports saying just five ships transited the strait in the last 24 hours.<\/p>\n<p>Before the US and Israel launched their war against Iran on February 28, the strait saw a daily average of 129 transits, according to the United Nations Trade and Development.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>International Chamber of Shipping official tells Al Jazeera the US and Iran should immediately release crews of captured vessels. A prominent shipping organisation has condemned the United States and Iran\u2019s tit-for-tat capture of commercial ships and is calling for the immediate release of their crews. In an interview with Al Jazeera, John Stawpert, marine director &#8230; <a title=\"Capture of ships by US, Iran violates international law, shipping body says\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/04\/25\/capture-of-ships-by-us-iran-violates-international-law-shipping-body-says\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Capture of ships by US, Iran violates international law, shipping body says\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6276,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}