DUBAI — Seven cargo ships sailed along the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, just half the previous day’s tally, showed data from shiptracker Kpler, amid concern over risk to Middle East shipping as US-Iran peace talks remain in limbo.Of the total, four ships entered and three exited the waterway, which was used by nearly a fifth of global shipments of crude oil and liquefied natural gas before war began in February.The seven did not include any very large crude carriers or liquefied natural gas tankers.However, one very large gas carrier — carrying propane and butane — did transit out of Hormuz via the Iranian route, the data showed.Separately, at the Bab El-Mandeb strait, traffic slowed slightly on Thursday compared with the previous two days.Commodity ships transiting the Bab El-Mandeb totaled 23, compared with 34 on each of the previous two days, Kpler data showed, of which 16 ships entered and seven exited.Out of the seven exits, two were Suezmax tankers — the Stoic Warrior and the Dokos — carrying crude oil bound for Vietnam and India respectively, the data showed.No very large crude carriers or liquefied natural gas tankers passed through the Bab El-Mandeb strait on Thursday.Vessels that sail through the waterways with transponders turned off do not feature in the data.US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that there are no “talks or conversations going on, or scheduled” with Tehran, adding that a naval blockade of Iranian ports remains in effect. But he said the Strait of Hormuz is “open and operating.” All “water mines have been removed or detonated” in the conduit, he said.Iranian officials previously refuted a separate suggestion from Trump that the US had opened up a back channel of communications with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s parliament speaker and top negotiator, also said that the Strait of Hormuz would remain shuttered until the US met the conditions of a now-expired framework ceasefire deal signed in June.Ghalibaf demanded that Washington lift the naval blockade of Iranian ports, unfreeze assets, remove oil sanctions, and halt “military operations on all fronts.” Until these and other conditions are implemented, “the strait will not be opened,” Ghalibaf said.
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