Tehran has exempted four countries from restrictions it placed on shipping through the strait of Hormuz, a senior Iranian lawmaker said this week, but the evidence does not appear to support this.
Amir Hayat-Moqaddam, deputy chairman of the Iranian parliament's national security and foreign policy committee, said India, China, Iraq and Qatar are "free [to pass]. And the US also does not impede them… [they can] go and come as they wish".
His comments come as Iran continues to target commercial shipping in and around the strait of Hormuz, with at least one sailor killed in November. Hayat-Moqaddam gave no indication of how long the exemption arrangement has been in place, but tied each to a particular Iranian interest.
"We have done this for the Indians so that we can bring in medications," he said. "We are doing this for the Chinese to secure their political support." He did elaborate on the reasons for exemptions offered to Iraq and Qatar.
Iran has for months insisted that vessels only pass the strait using a northern corridor over which it claims control. Some vessels crossing with Iranian co-ordination are paying Tehran a fee, in the hope of securing safe passage, a shipbroker said. Hayat-Moqaddam says the fee arrangement applies also to those countries with exemptions.
"We do still get paid," he said. "They pay us the toll, or fee, to cross, but also for oil we send." But he acknowledged that each of the four "has its own special circumstances."
Several countries have said they secured exemptions from Iran since the war began, including Iraq. Yet Iraqi-linked vessels were targeted after that, and were included on Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA) lists of vessels it said breached transit rules.
Hayat-Moqaddam's claims have not been formally communicated or confirmed by either the Iranian government or the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which has tightened its grip on decision-making in the country since the outbreak of the war.
A number of vessels linked to these four countries have been, and continue to be, targeted by Iran. An Indian national was killed in an attack on the Al Jusufi small cargo ship off the coast of Oman on 2 November, according to India's Ministry of External Affairs. Qatar Gas Transport Company (Nakilat) said on 1 November that its LNG carrier Al Mayeda was hit by unidentified objects while transiting the Mideast Gulf on the evening of 30 October.
Details of regional very large crude carrier (VLCC) fixtures in particular are scarce, with many deals being done privately between charterer and owner.
