Iranian MPs advance plan to charge Hormuz ships

TEHRAN

The Iranian parliament’s committee has approved a provision that would allow Tehran to impose fees on ships from countries permitted to transit the Strait of Hormuz, the panel’s spokers person has announced.

The provision is part of the proposed “Strategic Action Plan for the Security and Sustainable Development of the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf,” which seeks to establish a legal framework governing Iran’s role in security, navigation and services in the strategic waterway.

Under the provision, Iran could charge vessels for services including navigation, environmental protection, insurance, safety and refueling in special circumstances.

Payments would be collected in Iranian rials or another currency designated by Tehran, spokesperson Hassan Ghashghavi said.

He noted that the measure had been postponed at the committee’s previous session before receiving approval on Aug. 23.

Ghashghavi also stressed that international recognition of freedom of navigation should go hand in hand with respect for the sovereignty, security and rights of countries bordering the strait.

The bill must now be approved by the full parliament and subsequently reviewed by Iran’s Guardian Council before it can become law.

The move came as U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, in a column for the Financial Times, declared that an “economic D-Day” had begun against Tehran on Aug. 24 and said any country that continued to enable the Islamic Republic would become a “global pariah.”

Meanwhile, Oman’s foreign minister will travel to Iran on Aug. 25, as Tehran and Muscat seek a way to regulate the passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran has exerted control over Hormuz, a key waterway for oil and gas shipping, since the outbreak of the war in the Middle East on February 28. It requires vessels to obtain permission and pay transit fees
before using the waterway.

The United States wants the strait to return to its pre-war system of free navigation, while U.S. President Donald Trump claims Washington “has total control” over Hormuz, through which around one fifth of the world’s oil and LNG exports passed before the war.

Iran and Oman have been in talks to establish a new route through the strait, the only entrance to the Gulf and which separates their two countries, but a deal has not yet been finalized.