"First Western vessel since the outbreak of conflict," foreign media: a French container ship successfully passes through the Strait of Hormuz

Ask AI · How did French ships safely pass through the Strait of Hormuz by changing their nationality markings?

【Global Network Report, Reporter Suo Yanqi】According to reports from Qatar’s Al Jazeera and European news outlets, ship-tracking data shows that a French container ship successfully passed through the Strait of Hormuz on Friday (April 3) local time.

Al Jazeera and the UK’s The Guardian said this was the first Western vessel to pass through the strait since the outbreak of the US-Iran conflict. European news outlets and the BBC also said this was the first ship belonging to a company from a Western European country to pass through the strait since the outbreak of the conflict.

Cargo ships near the Strait of Hormuz (photo). Photo source: foreign media

The report said that the container ship, “Kribi,” which is affiliated with France’s CMA CGM Group, was flying the Maltese flag of convenience and sailed eastward from waters near Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, on Thursday (April 2) afternoon.

Al Jazeera said it is currently unclear how the ship managed to safely pass through the Strait of Hormuz. However, shipping data from the London Stock Exchange Group shows that on Thursday the ship changed its destination to “Shipowner France,” indicating the nationality of the shipowner to Iran, and then traversed Iran’s territorial waters in the Strait of Hormuz.

The report said CMA CGM Group has not yet commented on the matter.

On February 28, the US and Israel launched a large-scale military operation against Iran, and Iran retaliated against targets including the Israeli and US military bases in the Middle East. Due to the fighting, shipping through the Strait of Hormuz—one of the world’s key energy sea routes—was almost completely disrupted. Against this backdrop, US President Trump has recently repeatedly threatened to carry out airstrikes on Iran’s energy facilities and demanded that Iran reopen the Strait of Hormuz. On April 2, Velayati, the foreign affairs adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader, wrote on social media that, “The Strait of Hormuz is open to the world, but it will forever be closed to enemies of the Iranian people and their bases in the Middle East.”