FEATURE | Checkpoints and cash: Iran rewrites the rules for passing through Hormuz

The tanker crew gathered their courage and carefully navigated along a route designated by Iran, hugging the coastline and manoeuvring their hulking vessel between island checkpoints through the Strait of Hormuz.

The 330-metre-long Agios Fanourios I, laden with Iraqi crude oil and bound for Vietnam, had been bottled up off the coast of Dubai since late April. But on May 10 it set off for the strait after a direct deal with Iran overseen by Iraq’s prime minister.

Iran’s orders to the tanker were part of a complex, multi-tiered mechanism that the country has deployed for clearing vessels through the Strait of Hormuz. With Iran now in de facto control of the strait, the system can involve government-to-government arrangements, intense vetting by the Iranian government and sometimes fees in exchange for safe passage, Reuters has found.

In Vietnam, Iraq, Greece and beyond, the ship’s progress was monitored closely, including by two people interviewed by Reuters. Periodically, the transponder went dark but the Agios Fanourios I sailed on. Not far away that same day, another ship was hit with a projectile, causing a small fire, according to a British maritime safety agency.

Late on May 10, screens lit up with the icon for the Agios Fanourios I. But as the tanker passed Hormuz Island, it was stopped by Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps speedboats, according to an Iranian official.

The IRGC fighters patrolling the strait, who had initially let the vessel through, now ordered the ship to halt. The Iranian official said there was a suspicion of smuggled cargo and they wanted to inspect the ship.

Several hours later, the vessel received Iranian authorisation to continue, turning what is typically a five-hour transit through the strait into a two-day ordeal.

“Once we were informed Agios passed Hormuz, we breathed a sigh of relief,” said one of the people monitoring the journey.

No payments were made, said the ship’s manager, Eastern Mediterranean Shipping and six people with knowledge of the passage.

“We have reasons to believe that Iranians turned a blind eye to the transit of Agios Fanourios I, following pressure from Iraq and Vietnam,” Konstantinos Sakellaridis, operations manager for Eastern Mediterranean Shipping, wrote in a response to questions from Reuters.

Iran’s government did not respond to a request for comment about the new mechanism or the journey of the Agios Fanourios I. Iran’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz, the conduit for about a fifth of the global oil supply, has thrown the world economy into turmoil.

To reveal how Iran has been consolidating control over this strategic chokepoint in recent weeks, Reuters interviewed 20 people with knowledge of the evolving mechanism, including Asian and European shipping sources and Iranian and Iraqi officials, reviewed Iranian documents related to the vetting process, and analysed movements of ships.

Taken together, they offer rare insight into how the Iranian scheme functions, with the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps playing a central role.

All the sources asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the subject. Some of the details of the journey of the Agios Fanourios I could not be independently verified, but they corresponded with accounts from multiple other maritime officials involved in managing and navigating the same route for both cargo ships and tankers.