AMNA NAWAZ: For more now on the status of the Strait of Hormuz and if it's really open to all ships, we turn to Ian Ralby.

He's president of Auxilium Worldwide.

That's a nonprofit organization that focuses on ocean governance and maritime law and security.

Ian, welcome back to the "News Hour."

Let's just start with what we heard from both Iranian and U.S.

officials.

They're saying the Strait of Hormuz is open.

What are you seeing and hearing?

Is it really open to all commercial traffic?

IAN RALBY, President, Auxilium Worldwide: Well, I think we keep hearing that, but it means something very different in practice than what most of us would want.

Completely open would suggest that there would be free flow of maritime commerce, uninhibited, unimpeded.

That is not what is happening at the moment.

Iran's own conditions on the opening were that the vessels that wanted to come through would have to get permission from the IRGC and follow their own prescribed transit routes, which route vessels around Larak Island, near to the Iranian coast.

And so this is not a free and open Strait of Hormuz the way most of us would want it to be.

It is very much still within the control of Iran.

And what we have seen today is a complete difference between the rhetoric and the reality.

The vessels that tried to get through and started moving towards the strait and seemed to be on their way to passing through for the first time in weeks and months were actually hailed and turned back for lack of permission from Iran.

And so the rhetoric and the reality are very different at the moment.

And I think we have to be very careful not to get overly excited by what we're hearing from either Tehran or Washington.

AMNA NAWAZ: I just want to make real for people what you described there.

We have a map I want to show folks showing those traffic routes and transit routes.

In yellow there is the route that was open to all commercial vessels before the war began.

That blue route you see, the more narrow, restricted route as you described it, Ian, is the current route, the designated, coordinated route that Iranian officials have set up.

And, as you say, ships are being turned back.

But what are you hearing from the shipping companies themselves about how they're looking at this moment?

As soon as they heard the strait was open, did many of them indeed try to just pick back up where they left off and transit the strait?

IAN RALBY: Well, I think many are wisely cautious to believe anything coming out of Iran, especially after the amount of attacks that have occurred on vessels over the last month-and-a-half.

But, equally, we have to be careful about what we believe out of Washington, because the rhetoric from the president has been both inconsistent and volatile at times.

And so what we're seeing today is a mismatch between what everybody is saying and what is actually happening.

And so shipping companies were momentarily optimistic and enthusiastic, but the reality is actually pushing in a different direction.

And I think that they had a moment of uncertainty and concern around what might actually happen, but were hopeful that a perhaps en masse movement would overcome any kind of immediate concern.

Unfortunately, it does not seem to be working out quite as hopefully as everyone had hoped.

And so I think that what we're going to see is a little bit more resistance and resilience on the part of the shipping industry to wait for a greater degree of clarity, which has yet to arrive.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, Ian, even if there was clarity on this, which we don't have now, clarity, say, tomorrow that the strait was truly and unconditionally reopened for traditional transit patterns, what would you expect to see?

How long would it take for normal traffic patterns and movement to pick up?

IAN RALBY: Well, we really have two problems.

We have Iran at the one hand trying to maintain a choke hold on this choke point, because, even though they want to say it's open and want to give the optics to suggest that they are now the rational party that's making headway towards normalcy, we also still have a degree to which they're going to want to control what they have managed to use as their greatest leverage.

And so it is unlikely they're going to want to give that up any time soon.

At the same time, the U.S.

blockade is still in place.

And so that means that any vessels that have an Iranian connection or go to Iranian ports, call in Iran in any way, are also subject to being either turned away or potentially seized.

And so the announcement from the U.S.

yesterday that they're going to start seizing Iranian-affiliated cargoes worldwide does not exactly engender the kind of optimism that this is going to be a free and open strait any time soon.

And so we are probably a ways away from where we'd see a resumption of normal traffic.

We also don't know what the security picture is in terms of mines or asymmetric capabilities which the Iranians may still yet want to deploy in the event that things break down on the negotiating table.

And so we're well away from a point where maritime commerce can breathe the sigh of relief and we can expect free flow of maritime commerce and thus a resumption of the oil and gas trade, as well as all the other trades, and including containers and bulkers and everything else that moves through, for food, for goods, for medicine.

So this is yet to get to the point of any kind of calm and comfort for the ship owners, as well as for the seafarers, the people who carry our goods on board.

It is still life or death for them to try to go through, and we have to keep that in mind.

AMNA NAWAZ: That is Ian Ralby, president of Auxilium Worldwide, joining us tonight.

Ian, thank you so much for your time.

IAN RALBY: Thank you.