Despite a two-week U.S.-Iran ceasefire agreed on April 7 that included a guarantee of "safe passage" through the narrow Strait of Hormuz, only a handful of vessels are making it through the critical entrance to the Persian Gulf, reports BBC News. 

Earlier this week, after the ceasefire was jeopardized by Israel’s continued missile attacks on Lebanon, ship operators were told by the Iranian regime that they would be "targeted and destroyed" if they attempted to cross the strait without permission.

On April 9, Sultan Al Jaber, the chief executive officer of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc), said the passage was “not open,” and was subject to “permission, conditions and political leverage” by Iran, according to the Guardian.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance is heading to Pakistan to begin negotiations about Iran beginning Saturday, as President Donald Trump continued to demand the Iranians reopen the strait, and cease charging vessels fees for passage through what are designated international waters.

According to the BBC, data from MarineTraffic shows that, by 10:00 BST (5:00 EDT) on April 10, only 15 ships had been tracked passing through the strait since the ceasefire. Of these, four were tankers carrying either oil, gas or chemicals. The rest are listed as bulk carriers or container ships of various types.

That compares with the pre-war average of 138 ships passing through the strait each day.

The mechanism by which ship operators get permission from Iran to transit the strait remain unclear, over questions as to who is actually in charge. Although the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) appears to have wrested control of the country from President Masoud Pezeshkian's administration, the Iranian Coast Guard is immediately responsible for policing the strait, and the two bodies have given at times conflicting statements. The IRGC is nominally under the aegis of Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, but he has not been seen or heard from since the war began. (In a statement read out on television April 9, Khamenei said that Tehran was not seeking war but was fighting for its legitimate rights, reports AlJazeera.)

The Economist reports that with Iran’s leaders hidden in bunkers and the mobile-phone network penetrated by Israeli spies, communication is difficult. The IRGC, the regime’s most elite fighting force, has given commanders in the field latitude to launch attacks on their own initiative. Some may be unaware of the ceasefire, or even choosing to ignore it.