Pakistan on Monday facilitated the transfer of 22 Iranian crew members held aboard the container ship MV Touska, seized by the US, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said.

In a statement posted on X on Monday, the ministry said the individuals were flown to Pakistan “last night and will be handed over to Iranian authorities today.”

“As a confidence-building measure by the United States of America, twenty-two crew members held aboard the seized Iranian container ship, ‘MV Touska’, have been evacuated to Pakistan,” it added.

“The Iranian ship will also be back-loaded to Pakistani territorial waters for return to its original owners after necessary repairs,” the statement added. MOFA said these returns were coordinated in tandem with support from both the Iranian and US sides.

Pakistan welcomed such “confidence-building measures,” adding that it would continue to facilitate dialogue and diplomacy while pursuing ongoing mediation efforts for regional peace and security, the FO concluded.

On February 28, the US and Israel launched a joint offensive on Iran. Iran responded with its own strikes on Israel and the Gulf states that host US bases. US-Israeli strikes on Iran and Israeli attacks in Lebanon have killed thousands of civilians and displaced millions.

The war has been on hold since April 8, when Pakistan mediated a two-week ceasefire. Following the ceasefire, Pakistan hosted the highest-level US-Iran talks since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which ended without agreement, but the ceasefire held.

Despite the ceasefire, the US started intercepting Iranian ships.

Iran later blocked nearly all ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz apart from its own as Trump imposed a separate blockade of Iranian ports. The closure of the Strait, a chokepoint for about 20% of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments, resulted in a phenomenal rise in global oil prices.

On Sunday, President Donald Trump said the US would start helping to free ships stranded in the Gulf.

Trump gave few details of the plan to aid ships and their crews that have been “locked up” in the vital waterway and are running low on food and other supplies for more than two months.

“We have told these countries that we will guide their ships safely out of these restricted waterways, so that they can freely and ably get on with their business,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social.

The unified command of Iran’s armed forces responded by warning US forces to stay out of the strait. It said the Iranian forces would “respond harshly” to any threat, asking commercial ships and oil tankers to refrain from any movement without coordination with Iran’s military.

“We have repeatedly said the security of the Strait of Hormuz is in our hands and that the safe passage of vessels needs to be coordinated with the armed forces,” Ali Abdollahi, the head of the forces’ unified command, said in the statement.

“We warn that any foreign armed forces, especially the aggressive US army, will be attacked if they intend to approach and enter the Strait of Hormuz.”