Trump Drops the Hormuz Toll but Keeps a Blockade on Iran
President Trump reversed course on Tuesday, scrapping the 20% toll on Strait of Hormuz shipping he had announced only a day earlier, after it drew near-universal rejection — from the UN’s maritime body, which said there was no legal basis for it, to China and Brazil’s president, Lula, who called it “piracy”. He said he would “replace” the fee with “trade and investment deals” from the Gulf states. But he is pressing ahead with a US naval blockade — now aimed only at ships to and from Iranian ports — due to begin tonight.
The climbdown on the toll is a rare, rapid retreat, and a telling one: a levy on the world’s most important oil chokepoint proved unenforceable against the united opposition of the shippers, the great powers and international law, and even Trump’s own secretary of state had said no country may charge to transit a strait. Recasting it as future Gulf “investment” lets him claim a win while dropping the fee. What remains is still serious: a blockade of Iranian-linked shipping, set to start this evening, on top of a war in which the US has struck Iran for three straight nights and Iran has hit back at the Gulf bases that host Western forces. As of this edition the blockade had not yet formally begun, and no interception of a ship had been reported. Britain’s forces sit inside the Gulf. Watch whether the blockade sparks a fresh confrontation tonight, whether the promised Gulf investment materialises, and where the oil price settles.