UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Monday proposed a new mechanism to keep fertiliser and other essential goods moving through the Strait of Hormuz.
The UN chief's comments came as he warned that traffic through one of the world's most important shipping routes had nearly ground to a halt as conflict drives up global energy and food costs.
Oil prices remain about 33 per cent higher than at the start of the conflict, while global container rates have risen 84 per cent from a year ago, Mr Guterres told reporters in New York. Fertiliser and other essential input costs are also climbing sharply.
“These crises are choking arteries of global trade and squeezing the global food system especially hard,” Mr Guterres said, citing disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, the Red Sea and shipping routes also affected by the war in Ukraine.
US President Donald Trump said on Monday that Iran was “collapsing” as Washington prepared to announce the details of a new economic pressure campaign.
The US naval blockade of Iran has resulted in Tehran's oil exports via the Strait of Hormuz falling from two million barrels a day prewar to just 0.4 million by mid-August, according to maritime tracker Kpler.
The Strait of Hormuz is one of the world's most important energy chokepoints, handling around a quarter of global seaborne oil trade as well as significant flows of liquefied natural gas and fertilisers.
The disruption has intensified as efforts to end the US-Iran conflict have stalled. Tehran continues to blockade the strait, which it did not restrict before the war, driving up global inflation and increasing domestic pressure on Mr Trump ahead of midterm elections in November.
Mr Guterres said a UN task force he established in March had developed a time-bound confidence-building mechanism initially focused on fertilisers and related raw materials, with the possibility of extending it to other products.
Under the initiative, the UN would act as a neutral facilitator to reduce immediate risks and support more orderly and predictable transit through the Strait of Hormuz. It would not authorise passage through the strait or alter states' rights or obligations under international law, he said.
“It can be operationalised quickly,” he added. “All the parties involved have a detailed knowledge of … how the mechanism would work,” Mr Guterres said.
The UN chief also called for an immediate end to attacks on commercial shipping and civilian infrastructure in the Black Sea, an end to attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and around the Bab Al Mandeb, and the full restoration of navigational rights in Hormuz.
“Maritime chokepoints must never become instruments of coercion,” he warned. “And the world's food supply must never become collateral damage of conflict.”
