NewsNation International Correspondent Robert Sherman reported from inside the Strait of Hormuz on Friday and noted that while some ships are getting through, most of them are “holding and waiting” to make sure it’s safe.

Sherman showed clips from inside the Strait while on air and added, “What we saw out there on the waterways, I have to tell you, Marni, it is a very tense environment. Seeing all these ships that have been left in gridlock, here’s a quick description of what we saw there.”

“Started along the horizon, you can see all of these ships sitting here, waiting. There’s over 500 of them on either side of the Strait of Hormuz. Officials are saying it’s open for business, but as you can see, many are still holding and waiting. Not certain it’s safe yet,” he reported, adding:

And then if you go down the coastline, Marni, this was so striking to see all of the air defense systems, all of the radar sites as well. A reminder that we talk about the Strait of Hormuz in an economic sense, very much so considered an active war zone in that part of the world, in which at the closest point, it’s 21 miles that separates Iran and Oman. The distance between the UAE and Iran is also just a couple of dozen miles as well.

It’s one of the easier targets that Iran has that coastline there when it comes to their drones. From what we have seen monitoring the trackers, more ships are going through. It’s estimated that at least two dozen have over the last 24 hours. That’s well down from what we saw at the pre-war levels there, but certainly an uptick from the absolute standstill that we’ve all been witnessing here over the last few months

Reopening the Strait to commercial traffic is a key point in President Donald Trump’s deal with Iran. Iran strangled the Strait, one of the world’s key energy transit hubs, during the conflict in order to put economic pressure on the president, which eventually led to a push for a quick deal on Trump’s part.

On Friday, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard sowed confusion by declaring the Strait of Hormuz closed following an exchange of fire between Israel and Hezbollah, but the Iranian foreign minister quickly released a statement saying it was open.

Watch the clip above via NewsNation.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!