Iran’s foreign minister mocked US President Trump’s proposal to charge commercial shippers a 20 per cent toll for passing through the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, sarcastically agreeing with the American president while insisting that Tehran, not Washington, is the waterway’s rightful guardian and fee collector.
Trump announced in a Truth Social post that the United States would reinstate its naval blockade of Iranian ports and take on a new self-appointed role overseeing the strait, one of the world’s most critical oil and gas shipping corridors.
“The U.S.A. will be, from this point forward, known as ‘THE GUARDIAN OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT,'” he wrote, adding that the designation would come with a price: a reimbursement of “at the rate of 20% on all cargo shipped” to cover the cost of providing security in what he called “this very volatile section of the World,” Trump wrote.
Trump said the arrangement would take effect immediately, though the White House did not respond to press inquiries clarifying how the fee would actually be collected or enforced.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi responded within hours on X, adopting Trump’s own rhetorical style to turn the proposal back on him. “Iran has always been the GUARDIAN of the Strait and will remain so FOREVER,” Araghchi wrote, agreeing in principle that whoever secures safe passage through the waterway deserves compensation, while dismissing Trump’s proposed rate as excessive. “20% is of course too much. We will be fair,” he added.
A Reversal That Contradicts Washington’s Own Earlier Position
The exchange marks a striking reversal from the position the Trump administration had staked out just weeks earlier. During negotiations in June, Trump had publicly pushed back against any suggestion that Iran might impose fees on ships transiting the strait, insisting at the time that Iranian negotiators had assured him no such charges would ever be sought. Secretary of State Marco Rubio reinforced that stance last month, telling reporters plainly that “no country is allowed to charge tolls or fees on an international waterway,” calling the principle settled under existing international law.
That same legal argument now stands as an awkward complication for Trump’s own proposal. The United Nations’ International Maritime Organisation, which regulates global maritime transport, issued a statement rejecting the legality of mandatory transit fees regardless of which country seeks to impose them. “There is no legal basis through which to introduce mandatory tolls simply to transit through a strait,” the organisation said, with its governing council separately reaffirming that passage through the Strait of Hormuz should remain free of tolls and charges under international law, including the IMO’s own founding convention.
A Blockade Returns Amid Collapsing Ceasefire Talks
Trump’s announcement arrived alongside the reinstatement of a US naval blockade targeting Iranian ports, which US Central Command said would take effect Tuesday at 4 p.m. Eastern time.
“The Hormuz Strait is OPEN, and will remain OPEN, with or without Iran,” Trump wrote, describing the blockade as targeting only vessels and customers tied to Iran while assuring that “all other countries will have fair and open use of the Strait.”
CENTCOM advised mariners operating in the Gulf of Oman and the strait’s approaches to monitor official notices and maintain contact with U.S. naval forces.
The renewed blockade marks the second time the US has taken this step during the conflict, and it unwinds one of the central provisions of the memorandum of understanding Washington and Tehran signed last month, which had called for lifting the blockade and reopening the strait to normal commercial traffic.
That agreement had set a 60-day window for negotiating more difficult, unresolved issues, including the future of Iran’s nuclear program, its access to frozen financial assets, and the long-term administration of the strait itself.
Fresh Strikes Undercut an Already Fragile Truce
Monday’s toll dispute unfolded against the backdrop of a rapidly deteriorating security situation across the Gulf. Iran said it struck US-linked military sites in Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Jordan, while American forces have concentrated their retaliatory strikes primarily on port cities along Iran’s own coastline.
Qatar condemned the strikes on its neighbours, and Jordan’s military said it intercepted several Iranian missiles in its airspace. United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres expressed alarm at the scale of the renewed confrontation, with a spokesperson saying he was following the situation with “deep concern at the serious escalation of renewed military confrontation in the Gulf region.”
Commercial shipping traffic through the strait has slowed to a trickle amid the exchange of attacks. Maritime tracking data from Kpler showed just 14 vessels crossed the strait on Sunday, only half of them commercial ships, according to CBS News, reflecting the chilling effect the renewed hostilities have had on one of the world’s busiest energy shipping lanes.
Quiet Diplomacy Continues Even as Rhetoric Escalates
Despite the public sparring, both sides have kept at least limited diplomatic channels open. Araghchi said separately that he had travelled briefly to Muscat to meet Oman’s foreign minister, Badr al-Busaidi, along with legal and technical delegations from both countries, to discuss coordination between Iran and Oman on jointly managing the strait.
“These talks will continue at the political and technical levels,” Araghchi wrote, noting that the original US-Iran memorandum had specifically called for Tehran and Muscat to jointly define the waterway’s future administration.
Whether that quieter diplomatic track can survive the latest public escalation over tolls, blockades and competing claims to the title of the strait’s “guardian” remains uncertain, particularly as oil prices climbed and global markets reacted to the prospect of a fully reignited conflict in one of the world’s most economically vital waterways.
