Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi on Wednesday dialled his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar and discussed various aspects of the West Asia crisis.
The phone conversation came two days after Araghchi held wide-ranging discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
"Received a phone call from Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi of Iran this evening," Jaishankar said on social media.
"Had a detailed conversation about various aspects of the current situation. We agreed to remain in close touch," he said.
The Iranian embassy in New Delhi said the two sides "discussed and exchanged views on the latest developments related to the ceasefire, bilateral relations, as well as regional and international issues".
It is learnt that the situation arising out of the US's blockade of the Iranian ports as well as Iran's restrictions on movement of ships through the Strait of Hormuz figured in the conversation.
At least six ships - a fraction of the usual traffic - have crossed the Strait of Hormuz in the past 24 hours, shipping data showed, while the U.S. and Iran remain deadlocked over coming to terms that would reopen the crucial waterway.
The vessel traffic was mainly through Iranian waters and included the Vast Plus chemical tanker, which is subject to US sanctions, according to Kpler ship-tracking data and satellite analysis from SynMax.
Most of the ships were dry bulk carriers, and Reuters could not determine if more than six had transited the strait, but ship traffic has averaged around seven vessels a day in recent days.
That's a minuscule percentage of the normal flow through the crucial waterway at the entrance to the Gulf, which was at 125 to 140 daily passages before the Iran war began on February 28. U.S. President Donald Trump urged Iran on Wednesday to 'get smart soon' and sign a deal, following days of deadlock in efforts to end the conflict and a media report that the U.S. would extend its blockade of Iran's ports.
"Despite the 8 Apr 2026 US-Iran ceasefire, commercial traffic remains limited, with constrained transits and continued routing uncertainty," the US navy-led Joint Maritime Information Center said in its latest assessment report this week. Iranian officials have floated a proposal to charge ships a toll for sailing through the strait.
Shipping companies that make any payment to Iran for passage through Hormuz result in sanctions exposure even for non-U.S. persons, the U.S. Treasury said in an advisory on Tuesday.
Payments to the government of Iran or the Revolutionary Guards "directly or indirectly" for safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz would not be authorised for U.S. persons, including U.S. financial institutions, or for U.S.-owned or -controlled foreign entities, Treasury said.
