Europe considering proposals to allow navigation fees in strait of Hormuz

Original article by Patrick Wintour Diplomatic editor and William Christou

Europe is studying proposals that could allow navigation fees to be charged in the strait of Hormuz, provided the payments are not compulsory and have the support of the UN agency that regulates maritime transport.

Britain’s deputy prime minister, David Lammy, said imposing mandatory tolls would be disastrous. But some cabinet colleagues said they recognised that payments for specific navigational services were permissible in many natural waterways, including the strait of Malacca and the English Channel.

US officials have called on Iran to make a public declaration that the strait of Hormuz is open and that ships using the corridor will not be attacked. The officials blamed internal power struggles in Tehran for the difficulty in reaching and adhering to a deal.

Iran has insisted that its leadership is united, including on issues concerning the strait.

Donald Trump reiterated on social media on Friday that he viewed the interim ceasefire deal as “over” but that the US would continue talks intended to bring the war to a permanent end.

Hours later, the US president later made fresh threats against Iran should it seek to assassinate him. “1,000 missiles are locked and loaded and aimed at the Islamic Republic of Iran,” he wrote

Trump added in his post that the US military would “completely decimate and destroy all areas of Iran – PRAISE BE TO ALLAH!”

His comments came after the funeral of the late supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, during which there were calls for the US president to be killed.

Iran’s new supreme leader and son of the deceased Khamenei, Mojtaba Khamenei, vowed that Iran would avenge the killing of his father. He said in a written statement that revenge “is the will of our nation and must certainly be carried out.”

A proposal for the strait that adapts the principles from the strait of Malacca has already been developed by Oman in conjunction with British lawyers. Muscat has offered to send its legal experts to Tehran to explain the plan in detail.

Iranian state media reported on Friday that the country’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, would travel to Oman on Saturday for talks about the strait. The visit “will be focused on the strait of Hormuz and shipping safety” and is “a continuation of the consultations that we started with Oman over the past one or two months,” Iran’s official IRNA news agency quoted the foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei as saying.

The Turkish foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, told the state broadcaster TRT that he thought a solution could be reached this weekend between Iran and Oman on the issues of the strait.

Adding to the high tensions surrounding the diplomacy, however, Araghchi accused the US on Saturday of violating the memorandum of understanding (MoU) by stopping waivers which allowed Iran to sell oil on the market in US dollars – a move Washington made after the attacks on vessels in the strait.

Oman controls most of the navigable waters in the strait and opposes a compulsory toll. Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Majed al-Ansari, said: “Giving the Iranians sovereignty over the strait in a way that contradicts international maritime law will be basically agreeing to be hostages to whatever radical element that wants to take over the strait at any time.”

But the scale of Oman’s alternative scheme may not match the ambitions of the Iranians, especially the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. One diplomat said: “There are sections of the IRGC that say the US launched an unlawful attack on them in February, so why should they bother with the international law of the sea? Others want to cooperate. There is a division in Tehran.”

Iran is also under pressure from regional states to clarify its proposals, and whether the fees would in effect be compulsory.

The Iranian embassy in London said it was interested in proposals prepared independently by the Energy Policy Research Group.

The paper argued that a transparent service fee embedded within an inclusive regional order would incentivise all sides to cooperate, adding that the plan was not a crude toll imposed on ships just for passing through the strait.

Speaking at a meeting of the International Maritime Organization council on Thursday in London, the Oman delegate Khamis bin Mohammed Al Shamakhi said: “The right of transit passage through straits used for international navigation is guaranteed under international law and does not support the imposition of transit fees on vessels passing through the strait of Hormuz.”

However, he added that Oman saw value in exploring voluntary arrangements “relating to navigational support services that could further enhance maritime safety and security, protect the marine environment, reduce the risk of pollution and strengthen preparedness for maritime emergencies, including collisions and fires on board of ships and tankers”.

Behind these remarks is detailed work by Oman on the governorship of the strait of Malacca, which links the Indian and Pacific Oceans. A report to the IMO council on the cooperative mechanism for the straits of Malacca and Singapore said more than 120,000 vessels transit the straits annually.

The mechanism “has evolved into a structured and inclusive platform through which emerging risks, technological developments and environmental priorities in the straits may be collectively addressed”, the report added. Voluntary contributions, notably by Japan, keep the mechanism working.

At the London meeting, an alliance of some Gulf and European states pressed for a resolution condemning Iran for seeking to control the strait of Hormuz by attacking ships. The motion was not supported by Russia or China.

Russia said the confrontational motion completely ignored the root causes of the crisis, while China described the text as one-sided, and going beyond the IMO mandate.

The motion came after the US hit more than 150 targets mainly in the south of Iran this week, in an attempt to destroy the Iranians’ ability to harass shipping with drones, missiles and small boats. Iran has responded by hitting US bases in Kuwait and Bahrain.

One diplomat said there were two reasons for the renewed fighting. One concerned the disputed control of the strait during its reopening and the other was the long-term management of the waterway, including whether Malacca provided a model that would be acceptable to Iran.

Clause 5 of the MoU, the ceasefire negotiation roadmap signed by Washington and Tehran last month, committed Iran to make its best efforts for the safe passage of commercial efforts through the strait with no charge for 60 days only.

Once technical and military obstacles had been removed, traffic of commercial vessels would be “instated” within 30 days.

The US has claimed the MoU did not mean ships could pass the strait only with Iran’s permission and only on routes specified by Tehran.

Separately, the memorandum committed Iran to hold talks on a long-term plan for the strait with Oman.

In a statement on Thursday, the IRGC navy claimed it had in fact met the MoU commitments, as it interpreted them.

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The IMO secretary general, Arsenio Dominquez, believed he had won Iran’s agreement to the southern route that would allow thousands of stranded sailors to evacuate the strait, but, if there was an agreement, Tehran rescinded its approval, forcing the UN agency to suspend its plan.

The US nevertheless continued to encourage commercial traffic ships to use the southern route. US Central Command claims that since early May US forces “have helped facilitate the successful transit of more than 800 commercial vessels and 380m barrels of crude oil through the vital international trade corridor”.

The IRGC navy said: “We reiterate that foreigners have no role in this land or the strait of Hormuz.”

Diplomats are now examining whether Tehran is insisting all ships use the northern route close to Iran to clear the backlog of vessels or is simply requiring that all ships seek permission of the country and its Persian Gulf Strait Authority to use the southern route.