President Donald Trump said non-Iranian vessels will retain access to the Strait of Hormuz while the United States charges a 20% toll on eligible cargo to help cover the cost of securing the strategic waterway.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Monday that the United States is reinstating a blockade aimed specifically at Iranian shipping in the Strait of Hormuz while charging other vessels a 20% toll on eligible cargo in exchange for safe passage.
The announcement came after another heavy exchange of fire between the United States and Iran raised new concerns about the future of negotiations intended to end the war.
Trump said Iranian ships and customers would be prevented from entering or leaving through the strait, while vessels from other countries would retain access under the U.S.-secured system.
“We are reinstating the THE IRANIAN BLOCKADE, so named because it is only stopping Iran’s ships or customers from entering or leaving,” Trump said on social media. “All other countries will have fair and open use of the Strait.”
The president said the United States would receive 20% of the value of eligible cargo moving through the waterway.
He said the toll would reimburse the country for “any and all costs necessary to do the job of providing safety and security to this very volatile section of the World.”
Before the war, approximately one-fifth of the world’s oil and gas moved through the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran asserted control over the strategic passage after the United States and Israel began the war on Feb. 28.
The latest escalation followed an Iranian attack Sunday on a container ship in the strait.
Iran maintains that it has the right to regulate traffic and potentially impose passage fees under an interim peace agreement reached last month.
The United States and other governments reject that position, citing international protections for freedom of navigation.
The U.S. military has also worked to establish an alternative shipping route outside Iranian control.
Iran and the United States are approaching the midpoint of a 60-day period intended for negotiations over a permanent end to the war and a broader agreement concerning Tehran’s disputed nuclear program.
Instead, repeated attacks involving shipping in and around the Strait of Hormuz have increased fears that the conflict could return to full-scale war and create further disruption for international energy markets and trade.
Oil prices rose nearly 5% Monday before giving back part of those gains.
U.S. benchmark crude, which had climbed to almost $120 per barrel at the height of the war, was trading near $72.92. Broader financial markets were mixed.
The U.S. military said it struck dozens of Iranian targets Monday, including air defense systems, radar installations, missile and drone equipment, and small boats.
American officials reiterated that Iran does not control the Strait of Hormuz.
Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s top diplomat, called for the waterway to return to the open status it maintained before the war.
“Freedom of navigation has to be respected,” Kallas said.
Mohammed Mokhber, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, said Tehran would continue fighting for control of the strait.
“We defend it so that in the future, for the passage of our ships, we are not forced to pay tribute to the enemy!” Mokhber wrote on X. “Retreating from this vital matter has no place in the mind of any friend of Iran.”
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps also asserted sovereignty over the waterway.
The strait is “our territory, and we will not allow a rogue and child-killing army from the other side of the world to continue its illegal interference in it,” the IRGC said.
Iranian attacks spread across the region Monday.
Missile warning sirens sounded three times in Bahrain, which hosts the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet.
Kuwaiti authorities said they were intercepting hostile fire. No immediate reports of damage were available from either country.
Jordan’s military said it intercepted four Iranian missiles in an incident that “resulted in zero casualties or material damage.”
Jordan also hosts U.S. military personnel and aircraft.
Inside Iran, authorities reported attacks in Hormozgan, Khuzestan and Markazi provinces, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.
At least two people were killed, Iranian officials said.
Semiofficial Iranian media also reported strikes in Sistan and Baluchestan province, which lies along the Gulf of Oman.
Some attacks continued hours after the United States said its own strikes had ended, further raising the possibility that Gulf Arab countries could retaliate directly against Iran.
Iran was also struck in unclaimed attacks Thursday.
A base used by the armed wing of an Iranian Kurdish opposition group in Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdistan region came under drone attack Monday, according to local commander Rebaz Sharifi.
No immediate information was available about casualties or damage.
No organization claimed responsibility for the strike. Iran supports several powerful militias operating in Iraq.
The Monday attacks followed a much heavier U.S. operation early Sunday.
The American military said it struck approximately 140 targets, including missile and drone launch sites, ammunition storage facilities and communications equipment.
That round of attacks was significantly larger than two previous sets of U.S. strikes carried out during the preceding week.
Iran responded by targeting countries hosting American forces.
Sunday’s attacks reached Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan and Oman, which shares control of the geographic strait with Iran.
Oman, which has long served as an intermediary between Tehran and Western governments, summoned an Iranian diplomat to protest the attack.
Iran’s control over passage through the strait has weakened as the U.S. military assists commercial ships traveling through a southern route close to Oman’s coastline.
Iran has objected to the alternative route and repeatedly attacked vessels attempting to use it.
MarineTraffic.com said use of the Omani route fell sharply over the weekend.
Traffic dropped “to minimal levels, indicating that operators continue to prioritize perceived security over more direct transit options,” the ship-tracking service said.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei blamed the United States for the continuing instability.
“Considering the memorandum of understanding’s fourteen clauses, the Americans have, in this brief period, in one way or another, slaughtered its various components,” Baghaei told reporters Monday.
Baghaei also said Iran would not permit International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors to visit nuclear sites bombed by the United States in 2025.
Tehran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium is believed to remain buried at those locations.
Trump said last week that the interim agreement was “over,” but Pakistan, Qatar and Egypt have continued trying to mediate a final settlement.
A regional official involved in those efforts said talks intended to reinforce the ceasefire continued Sunday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations.
Pakistan said its foreign minister spoke by telephone with Iran’s top diplomat and called for “de-escalation” by both sides.
Trump’s proposed toll represents a new phase in the U.S. effort to control movement through the Strait of Hormuz.
Under the plan, Iranian vessels and customers would be blocked, while ships from other nations would be permitted to transit under American protection in return for a 20% payment on eligible cargo.
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