Tehran, Nov. 4 -- Iran has exempted merchant vessels from India, China, Iraq and Qatar from restrictions on using the Strait of Hormuz, and the measure is aimed at facilitating the procurement of medicines from India, an influential Iranian lawmaker has said.

Amir Hayat-Moghaddam, deputy chairman of the Iranian parliament's national security and foreign policy committee, said ships from these four countries can "pass freely" through the strategic waterway and the US too is not stopping them either.

We have currently exempted India, China, Iraq and Qatar from transit restrictions in the Strait of Hormuz. Ships from these countries pass freely, and the Americans do not intercept them either," Hayat-Moghaddam said in an interview with the ...