By Tuvan Gumrukcu
ANTALYA, April 18 (Reuters) - British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said on Saturday the Strait of Hormuz had yet to return to normal operations despite a ceasefire in the Iran war, urging Tehran to allow global shipping to fully resume.
"We are at a critical diplomatic moment with a ceasefire now in place ... but we don't yet have normal passage through the strait," Cooper told Reuters on the sidelines of a diplomacy forum in Antalya.
A convoy of tankers was crossing the strait on Saturday, the first major movement of ships in the crucial waterway since the U.S. and Israel launched their war on Iran on February 28.
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Saturday that Tehran had agreed to "the managed passage of a limited number of oil tankers and commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz". It added that the strait will remain under strict Iranian control if the U.S. does not ensure full freedom of navigation for vessels travelling from and to Iran.
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Cooper said the U.S.-Iran truce needed to develop into a lasting peace, adding that restoring shipping through the waterway was urgent for the global economy.
"We need the Strait of Hormuz open ... because this helps all of our economies right across the world that are currently being held hostage," she said.
Cooper said more than 50 countries had backed efforts to support freedom of navigation, with over a dozen prepared to provide maritime support, including demining and reassurance for shipping, once the conflict ends.
She said there was still “considerable work to do” to turn the ceasefire into an enduring settlement and urged all sides to uphold the truce.
(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Jonathan Spicer, Louise Heavens and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)