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U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that the U.S. is supposedly going to take control over the Strait of Hormuz and charge a 20 percent fee — just weeks after his own secretary of state said that “no country is allowed” to impose fees on ships passing through the waterway.
In successive statements on Monday morning, Trump said that the strait is “OPEN, and will remain OPEN,” while also saying that the U.S. is reinstating its blockade on Iran and charging anyone else a 20 percent fee on all cargo passing through the strait. He declared that the U.S. will become the “guardian” of the passage, without specifying what this title means or how it is recognized or implemented.
“The U.S.A. will be, from this point forward, known as ‘THE GUARDIAN OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT,’ but as such, and as a matter of FAIRNESS, will be reimbursed, at the rate of 20% on all cargo shipped,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The post came shortly after Trump announced the “guardian” title in an interview with Fox News, saying that “we’re gonna keep the strait, and we’ll probably run it.” He claimed the U.S. has “guarded the strait for 50 years, and we never got paid for it.”
It’s unclear what he’s referring to. Iran and Oman have long administered the strait, as they are the two countries that border the two sides of the passageway.
Trump’s announcement comes despite Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying, just weeks ago, that “no country” can do what Trump is suggesting under international law.
“No country is allowed to charge tolls or fees on an international waterway. That’s existing international law, and that’s the way it is in international waterways across the world, and that’s the way we expect it will be here,” Rubio said in remarks during a visit to the Middle East in June. “I think all the countries in this region would agree.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that it is Iran that is, in fact, the “guardian” of the strait.
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“POTUS is absolutely right. Whoever provides secure and safe passage of commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz should be compensated for this service,” Araghchi said in a post on social media. “Iran has always been the GUARDIAN of the Strait and will remain so FOREVER. 20% is of course too much. We will be fair.”
Critics have previously noted the double standard with which Iran is treated with regard to the strait.
As part of a ceasefire deal with the U.S., Iran and Oman reportedly recently proposed a plan to allow free transit through the strait for 60 days, before the implementation of a fee to both countries. Iranian officials have previously said that Iran would not accept any reversion to the pre-war conditions, where cargo passed through the strait free of charge.
Earlier in the war, Iran was charging some vessels $2 million to pass through the strait, but this policy has seemingly fluctuated as the war has gone on and Iran has used the strait as a leverage point in the war.
The UN’s shipping agency, the International Maritime Organization (IMO), has criticized Trump’s announcement.
“We are aware of the post and awaiting more details,” a spokesperson for the agency said, according to Reuters. “We have always been consistent on our stance on fees – IMO stands firmly against charging fees for passage through straits used for international navigation. There is no legal basis through which to introduce mandatory tolls simply to transit through a strait.”
The U.S. has continued to conduct strikes on Iran following Trump’s unilateral declaration that the ceasefire was “over” last week. U.S. Central Command announced that the military hit “dozens” of targets on Sunday. Iran state media reported that U.S. strikes overnight on Monday hit a water pumping station crucial for agriculture in the southwestern province of Khuzestan.
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