JAKARTA - Iran's new body tasked with overseeing shipping through the Strait of Hormuz said hundreds of non-Iranian vessels have requested permission to cross the waterway in recent weeks.
The Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA) stated through the X platform that more than 200 non-Iranian vessels had coordinated within three weeks of the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the US and Iran, before the latest escalation of fighting in and around the vital waterway.
Most of these ships "have received transit permits and insurance coverage," the authority said without giving exact numbers.
CNN was not able to independently verify Iran's claims.
Earlier this year, Iran formed the PGSA as an effort to enforce control over ship traffic in the strait and to formalize its sovereignty claim over the waterway, which is the export route for most of the region's oil.
Before Iran declared the strait "closed" last weekend, Tehran insisted the waterway remained open, but only for vessels coordinating their voyages with Iranian authorities through the PGSA.
Iranian authorities blamed the "movements" of US military forces in the region as the cause of this latest closure.
The United States has previously warned ship operators not to cooperate with PGSA, while President Donald Trump yesterday insisted that the vital waterway must remain open with or without Iran.
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