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Iran has begun collecting revenue from tolls imposed on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a senior parliamentary official said on Thursday. The move raises questions over how legal and enforceable such charges are in one of the world’s most critical energy corridors.
Deputy speaker of parliament Hamidreza Hajibabaei said the "first revenue" received from the tolls had been "deposited into the Central Bank account”, the Tasnim news agency reported.
The strait, a vital chokepoint for global energy supplies, has emerged as a major flashpoint since the Iran war began on February 28. Tehran effectively shut the waterway after US and Israeli strikes on Iran and has since demanded the right to levy tolls on ships passing through it as a condition for ending the conflict, while allowing only limited maritime traffic through the narrow channel.
Control of the strait would allow Tehran to revive oil exports, the lifeblood of Iran’s economy, which have been severely disrupted by a US blockade on Iranian ports that has sharply curtailed its ability to sell crude abroad.
The future of the waterway, through which roughly a fifth of global oil and gas supplies normally pass, has now become a central issue in US-Iran negotiations, alongside restrictions on Tehran’s nuclear programme, after Iran’s effective blockade of tankers sent global energy prices sharply higher.
Crucial strait
The strait is one of the world’s most critical maritime chokepoints, linking the Arabian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and the open ocean. In peacetime, about a fifth of global oil supplies, along with significant volumes of liquefied natural gas, pass through the strait, supplying key markets in Asia, Europe and beyond.
Major producers including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Iraq and Kuwait rely on the route to export energy, while Iran borders its northern shore, giving it strategic influence over traffic.
Part of the strait flows through Oman's territorial waters, but this area is still within easy striking distance for Iranian forces.
Aimen Dean, a former MI6 operative who now conducts in-depth terrorist financing research, told The National that what Tehran wants “above everything else, is for the US to concede that the Iranian regime has a security oversight jurisdiction over the entire strait”.
“Now, this is completely unacceptable, because it's not the US remit to determine or to give this privilege to the Iranian regime whatsoever. It's an international body of water,” he added.
The US, along with the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain, have categorically rejected the demand and refuse to treat it as a viable negotiating position, Mr Dean said. “These four [Gulf] countries are absolutely refusing this, not even to countenance this, not even to consider it as a serious negotiating position,” he added.
“The US is facing this extremely difficult situation with the Iranian negotiators who are saying, we are not budging on this. This is a directive coming from the supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, and therefore we will not abandon this demand.”
The dispute over Hormuz is one of the central obstacles in broader negotiations, alongside disagreements over Hezbollah’s role in Lebanon and the fate of Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile.
What laws govern strait navigation?
Navigation through the strait is governed by the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which grants all ships and aircraft an unrestricted right of “transit passage”. According to convention, “transit passage” through international straits cannot be blocked or denied by bordering nations, such as Iran.
Vessels must move “continuously and expeditiously” and refrain from threatening the sovereignty of coastal states. The convention says countries next to a strait can control waters up to 12 nautical miles from their coast, known as their territorial sea, but they must still allow what is called “innocent passage”.
This means ships can pass through as long as they do not threaten the country’s peace, security, or order. About 170 countries, along with the EU, have signed the treaty, but Iran and the US have not ratified it.
Can Iran charge tolls?
Under the UN convention, Iran cannot charge tolls or fees for transit passage through the strait. Article 26 of the treaty explicitly prohibits bordering states from levying charges on foreign ships merely for passing through a waterway used for international navigation.
If a country attempts to restrict passage or impose unlawful fees, affected states can raise the issue at the UN Security Council, arguing that such actions threaten international peace and security, particularly given the strait’s role as a critical global energy route.
