Ship Executives Push for Hormuz to Return to Normal Maritime Activity Reports, Inc. June 1, 2026 © Adobe Stock/Parilov Shipping executives meeting in Athens on Monday said that any peace deal worked out between the United States and Iran would need to offer clear rules allowing vessels to resume normal business via the Strait of Hormuz. Shipowners and  maritime  industry officials met at a Capital Link conference and other events to begin Posidonia, a week-long biennial shipping exhibition. Below are selected quotes (in alphabetical order): ARSENIO DOMINGUEZ, SECRETARY GENERAL, INTERNATIONAL  MARITIME  ORGANISATION (IMO) "There have been ... recent announcements that there's a possibility of a 60-day ceasefire. If that includes, of course, the Strait of Hormuz, and I can get guarantees from the countries that it is safe to start using the waterway, that's where the evacuation framework immediately will come and kick in. That's what we're looking for, because the first objective is always to seafarers, to engage, so they can actually leave the conflict zone." PANKAJ KHANNA, PRESIDENT, HEIDMAR  MARITIME  HOLDINGS CORP"What we need is obviously a framework, a rules regulation, whatever tells us exactly how we can go in and get out. So even if a peace deal was signed, that needs to be clarified and that we don't know as yet. Khanna said the company had a vessel stuck inside the Gulf for the past three months and noted the impact on seafarers: "Obviously the seafarers on board are missing out, not only on seeing their families but also on births, on deaths, on marriages." VASILIS KIKILIAS, GREECE’S SHIPPING MINISTER "Can somebody predict (an end to the conflict)? Unfortunately, no... Things get messy in terms of conflicts very, very easily, and they get untangled, (but that is) very, very difficult. "We are hoping, of course, that there will be a solution. We cannot accept that there will be no free (passage) for ships all over the globe. I