Trump demands that Iran stop charging fees for ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz
10 April 11:16
Iran must “immediately stop” charging ships for passage through the Strait of Hormuz, U. S. President Donald Trump said.
“They’d better not do this, and if they do, they’d better stop immediately!” the White House chief wrote on his social media platform TruthSocial, according to "Komersant Ukrainian".
He also noted that Tehran is thereby violating the agreement on a two-week ceasefire.
“Iran is doing a very bad job, which some would call dishonorable. <…> That’s not the deal we have!” he emphasized.
In a later post, Trump assured that oil supplies from the Middle East would soon begin to increase.
“Very soon you will see oil start flowing, with or without Iran, and it doesn’t matter to me either way,” the White House chief wrote.
Prior to this, Hamid Hosseini, a representative of Iran’s Union of Oil, Gas, and Petrochemical Exporters, stated that during the truce with the U.S., Iran would require shipping companies to pay $1 per barrel of oil on tankers passing through the Strait of Hormuz. Payments would have to be made in Bitcoin, which would allow transactions to be concealed and avoid the risk of sanctions for shipowners. Tankers traveling without cargo would be able to pass through the strait for free.
On April 8, Trump announced a two-week ceasefire in the war with Iran. He stated that the condition for ending hostilities was the opening of the Strait of Hormuz to free navigation. Tehran confirmed its readiness to comply with this demand, subject to coordination with the Iranian military and technical constraints. That same day, the first ship passed through the strait; however, as stated in Tehran, it had not received the necessary authorization. Soon after, due to Israeli strikes on Lebanon, Iran decided to suspend the passage of oil tankers through the strait. In total, according to Bloomberg, more than 800 ships remain stranded in the waters of this sea route.
Against this backdrop, oil company executives began reaching out to the White House, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Vice President Jay D. Vance to protest Iran’s permission to charge fees for passage through the Strait of Hormuz, industry representatives told Politico.
According to the publication, the Trump administration has so far responded to such complaints with remarks such as, “We will take note.”
