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18-03-2026
Bureau Report
NEW DELHI: India has sought safe passage for 22 of its vessels stranded west of the Strait of Hormuz, a foreign affairs ministry spokesperson said on Saturday, after Iran allowed a few Indian ships to sail through, in a rare exception to the blockade.
Randhir Jaiswal told a press conference that India has stayed in touch with all major parties in the Middle East including Gulf Cooperation Council countries, Iran, the US and Israel to convey its priorities, particularly on energy security.
Tehran’s Ambassador to India, Mohammad Fathali, confirmed that Iran has allowed some Indian vessels to sail through the Strait of Hormuz. He was speaking on broadcaster India Today’s conclave in New Delhi.
Since the United States and Israel launched a bombing campaign on Iran, Tehran has largely halted traffic through the strait, which runs past its coast and through which around 20% of global oil and seaborne liquefied natural gas is supplied.
The blockade has triggered India’s worst gas crisis in decades with the government cutting supplies for industries to shield households from any shortage of cooking gas.
The stranded ships include four crude oil vessels, six liquefied petroleum gas carriers and one liquefied natural gas vessel, special secretary at the Indian shipping ministry Rajesh Kumar Sinha said at the same press conference.
Sinha said two Indian vessels, Shivalik and Nanda Devi chartered by Indian Oil Corp, opens new tab, had safely passed through the strait and would reach the western Indian ports of Mundra and Kandla on March 16 and 17.
The vessels together carry more than 92,000 metric tons of liquefied petroleum gas, he said. India is also trying to build consensus among BRICS members for a position on the Middle East conflict, Jaiswal said. India is current chair of the BRICS group of countries comprising original members Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa which has expanded to include Iran and others.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump threatened more strikes on Iran’s main oil export hub Kharg Island and said he was not ready for a deal with Tehran to end the war which has shut off the vital Strait of Hormuz and caused chaos in global energy markets. With the US-Israeli war on Iran in its third week, Trump said US strikes had “totally demolished” much of the island and warned of more, telling media on Saturday, “we may hit it a few more times just for fun.”
The comments marked a sharp escalation from Trump, who had previously said the US was targeting only military sites on Kharg, and dealt a blow to diplomatic efforts to end a war that has spread across the Middle East and killed more than 2,000 people, most in Iran and Lebanon.
Trump called on countries that have been impacted by the choking off of oil supplies through the Strait of Hormuz to join efforts to reopen shipping lanes. The Financial Times reported that European Union foreign ministers would discuss widening of the EU’s regional Aspides naval mission.
Washington has brushed aside attempts by Middle Eastern allies to open talks, three sources told media and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Sunday they had fired more missiles at Israel and three US bases in the region.
Trump, who has made a series of varying demands, including a say in choosing Iran’s leader and an end to its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, told media that Tehran appeared ready to make a deal to end the fighting but that “the terms aren’t good enough yet”.
In his interview, Trump raised the possibility that Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei may have been killed, but Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Khamenei was in full health and managing the situation.
