Tehran Is Seeking to Cash In With Its Control of Hormuz --- Regime pursues plan to set transit fees, which the U.S. says would be a 'contagion'

 

Tehran has control of Hormuz because of efficient military use of drone and missile swarms. Those swarms and control of Hormuz are still there. Legalese can’t change results of the war.

 

Tehran's asymmetric advantage holds true on the water. Even with a tentative ceasefire and a memorandum of understanding signed with the U.S., Iran's effective physical control over the Strait of Hormuz remains unchanged.

Diplomatic agreements and naval escorts have not eliminated the underlying strategic reality that Tehran's missile, drone, and naval mine capabilities dictate the flow of maritime traffic.

•           Drone Attacks: Despite a fragile ceasefire, Iranian forces continue to challenge shipping. Iranian drones have struck commercial vessels transiting the waterway.

•           Operational Control: The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) asserts that ships must adhere to routes dictated by Tehran and obtain authorization, threatening to "deal with" unauthorized vessels.

•           International Fallout: Because of active Iranian threats, the United Nations' International Maritime Organization paused its initiative to safely evacuate over 11,000 seafarers trapped in the region.

•           Blockade Disputes: While the U.S. insists that commercial ships must be able to pass through the Strait freely, Tehran maintains the upper hand through its persistent "kill box" strategy of land-based missile batteries, sea mines, and localized swarm tactics.

 

Since most Western politicians are lawyers, they try what they know, how to do – legalese. It looks funny: 

“MANAMA, Bahrain -- Iran is pushing to make billions of dollars from the Strait of Hormuz as the regime positions itself to manage the global oil artery it severed at the start of the war.

 

The Islamic Republic estimates charging for security, safety and environmental services in the strait would bring in $40 billion a year in revenue for states involved, said officials familiar with the matter. The idea, if implemented, would bring Tehran cash flow and control that it didn't command before the war.

 

The regime is looking to models around the world, including the Dardanelles, the officials said, where Turkey charges ships a tax known as the gold franc for passage to and from the Aegean Sea through the waterway.

 

Tehran is pitching the idea to the Mideast and as far afield as Beijing, Iranian officials said. It wants its Persian Gulf neighbors to be part of the deal and share the revenue, they said.

 

"Everyone needs to know that management of the strait will never return to the way it was before," said Iran's chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, during a visit Tuesday to Oman to discuss the proposals with its neighbor across the waterway.

 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio disputed the idea, saying Thursday tolls or fees would set a dangerous precedent that would spread and cause chaos. "The reality is that no country has the right to charge for the use of international waterways, and that will never be an acceptable condition of any deal," he said from Bahrain. Persian Gulf countries, he said, rejected the idea of charges.

 

The 60-day deal to end the fighting and reopen the waterway puts Iran in charge of demining it and insists on toll-free passage for ships during that period. The document also gives Iran, which doesn't recognize law governing the strait, a say in the future management of the shipping chokepoint.

 

The Strait of Hormuz is a battleground in negotiations to end the conflict. The war taught Iran the threat it can pose to shipping with missiles and drones gives it an on-off switch over the critical global trade route. President Trump's deal offers Iran the right to negotiate the administration of the passage long term.

 

Iran has set up an insurance firm it says shippers must use to cross the strait and warned transits outside its routes are dangerous and prohibited, Iranian state media reported.

 

The U.S. and Oman, along with other Persian Gulf nations, have said the strait should remain toll free. "There are no tolls, no insurance costs & no other charges of any kind being sought or received by Iran on ships traveling the Strait of Hormuz," Trump wrote in a social-media post Wednesday, without saying whether he would negotiate the issue.

 

Oman recognizes the convention banning tolls on maritime highways and its Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi reiterated in the meeting Thursday with Rubio in Bahrain that future arrangements for Hormuz wouldn't include transit fees. After talks this week, Iran and Oman said their discussions focused on services required in the management of the strait and their associated costs.

 

Tehran has discussed its proposal to charge service fees in talks with China and Egypt, said Iranian and mediating officials. Privately, Iranian officials have said they would be open to the U.S. joining such payment programs, an idea Trump has occasionally raised.

 

The Dardanelles -- the sliver of sea that splits Turkey between Europe and Asia -- is providing Iran with a model for Hormuz. The international waterway is covered by a 1936 convention that gives Ankara a mandate to demand shippers pay the so-called gold franc to cross it. The charge, set at $6.70 a ton for the year starting July 1, covers sanitary services, lighthouses and rescues. Ships moving from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean must go through the Dardanelles.

 

There are obstacles to Iran adopting a similar policy. Tehran has signed international and regional pacts that ban it from imposing unilateral payments on passing ships, said James Kraska, a maritime law professor at the U.S. Naval War College. Turkey's agreement can't automatically be applied to another nation, he said. Moreover, any service fees levied by Iran would need consensus of the 176 members of the International Maritime Organization.

 

Iran has justified charges in the Strait of Hormuz as a means to control the flow of military goods, after it alleged the U.S. used the strait to transport military supplies it later deployed to attack Iran, Iranian officials said. When asked for comment, the White House referred to Trump's comments about strait fees.

 

Another model that Gulf nations are examining is in the Strait of Malacca, which also is a global-energy chokepoint bordered by more than one country. The Malacca Straits Patrol, a multinational military force, could be a model for managing strait transits, said Mideast and European officials.” [1]

 

1. World News: Tehran Is Seeking to Cash In With Its Control of Hormuz --- Regime pursues plan to set transit fees, which the U.S. says would be a 'contagion'. Faucon, Benoit; Said, Summer; Paris, Costas; Gramer, Robbie.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 26 June 2026: A8.