President Donald Trump said that no tolls will be imposed in the Strait of Hormuz by Iran after the 60-day ceasefire.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump addressed one of the central concerns about the U.S.-Iran Memorandum of Understanding, whether it would allow Iran to impose tolls after the 60-day period for negotiations. The president said Iran would never impose tolls in the strait, but left open the possibility that the U.S. could.
“There will be NO TOLLS in the Hormuz Strait for 60 days during the Cease Fire Period, and there will be NO TOLLS after the 60 day period has expired, unless they are imposed by and for the United States of America, should the deal not be completed, for services rendered as the Guardian Angel to the countries of the Middle East for purposes of both past, present, and future reimbursement of costs,” he wrote.
The language that tolls would not be collected for 60 days raised concerns that tolls could be imposed after the period, a non-starter for the Gulf states. A senior U.S. official speaking with CNBC News indicated that Washington was relying on the Gulf countries to strike a separate deal with Iran to prevent the imposition of any tolls.
Fars News, an Iranian news outlet associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, boasted earlier this week that the regime secured concessions from the U.S. in a few last-minute changes to the deal, among which were changes to the language referring to a joint Iran-Oman maritime administration in the Strait of Hormuz, and a pledge that the MOU would only bar the collection of tolls in the strait for 60 days. The MOU leaked to Bloomberg before it went public did not include these amendments, but the final draft released to the public did.
The 60-day toll ban was viewed by many as implying that Iran could reinstitute them after this period, which would be a massive revenue boost to its struggling economy. It would also cost U.S. Gulf allies significantly.
During the war, Iran’s claims of assertion of sovereignty over the strait and the charging of tolls were widely mocked and not taken seriously as a lasting state of affairs, particularly due to its lack of basis in international law. The Gulf countries have been outspoken about their opposition to this practice; Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan al Saud said in a recent talk that only a return to the status quo would be acceptable.
“The management of the strait was working fine before the conflict,” he said. “There were no issues. Ships were navigating freely. There was no safety issue. There was no environmental issue. There were no issues.”
“So why should we now, as a result of a conflict, accept some novel arrangement that is going to be imposed on it? That, to me, doesn’t make sense,” the foreign minister concluded.
Trump was dismissive of the provision when asked by journalists earlier this week
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“The thing that’s going to stop them from [eventually charging tolls], because you can’t cover everything in a document, is common sense,” he said, adding that they were afraid the U.S. would start bombing them again if they tried.
However, Trump’s suggestion that the U.S. could impose tolls of its own may raise the concerns of the Gulf countries.