LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — The International Maritime Organization (IMO) will convene an “extraordinary session” next week to discuss threats to shipping in the Middle East and particularly in the Strait of Hormuz, the agency said Thursday.

The meeting, scheduled for 18 to 19 March at the IMO headquarters in London, was requested by six of IMO’s 40 members: Britain, Egypt, France, Morocco, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

It comes amid fears about the choking off of global energy supplies triggering rocketing energy prices.

The Strait of Hormuz — through which a fifth of global crude passes — has effectively shut down by Iranian retaliatory attacks against ships and its Gulf neighbors.

On Thursday, an attack on two oil tankers off Iraq killed at least one crew member, while a cargo ship caught fire after being hit by shrapnel.

Iran’s new supreme leader ordered the strait to remain closed on Thursday and the opening up of new fronts in the war against the United States and Israel.

The conflict that started on 28 February is heading towards its third week. Tehran has targeted energy facilities this week across the Gulf, with ships hit near Iraq, fuel tanks attacked in Bahrain and drones fired at oil fields in Saudi Arabia. And it warned on Thursday that it would “set the region’s oil and gas on fire” if its own energy infrastructure and ports were targeted.

In his first public comments since succeeding his father four days ago, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said in a message read by an anchor on state television,“The lever of blocking the Strait of Hormuz must definitely be used.”

The US military is currently “not ready” to escort tankers through the critical waterway because all its assets are focused on striking Iran, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Thursday.

He added that it was “quite likely” such escorts would be taking place by the end of the month.

Strikes, donation, repatriation

Huge explosions rocked central Tehran on Friday, according to Iranian state television, which added that strikes had hit an area not far from where a pro-government demonstration was being held.

Earlier, state TV broadcast images of crowds gathering in Tehran and other major cities to mark Quds Day, the last Friday of Ramadan, in support of the Palestinian cause.

China said on Friday it will donate $200,000 to the parents of students killed in what it called an “indiscriminate” missile strike on a school in Iran early in the Middle East war.

Tehran has accused the US and Israel of conducting the deadly missile attack on the school in Iran’s south on the first day of the war.

Iranian media reports said funerals were held for at least 165 people, including children, killed in the strike.

The toll has not been verified independently. A US military investigation into the strike is underway.

Sri Lanka is repatriating on Friday the remains of 84 Iranian sailors who perished when their frigate was sunk nine days ago by a US submarine, the Foreign Ministry said.