Iran Approved the Idea of Imposing Tolls for Passage Through the Strait of Hormuz and Closing It to U.S. and Israeli Ships

Iran’s parliamentary security commission has approved a proposal to impose transit fees on vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz. One of its members announced the move on March 30 in remarks broadcast by the state-run IRIB network.

Under the proposal, passage through the strait would be barred to vessels linked to the United States and Israel, while the fees themselves would be levied in Iranian rials.

Washington has already signaled that it has no intention of tolerating such measures. “We will never allow that,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in an interview with ABC.

He stressed that any restrictions would hit other countries first and foremost, since “far more is at stake for them than for us.” In his words, only a small share of America’s energy supplies passes through the Strait of Hormuz.