Iran Warns ‘Unauthorized’ Ships in Hormuz as Rubio Rejects Transit Fees
By The Media Line Staff
Iran renewed its warning against unauthorized vessel traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, insisting that ships use routes approved by Tehran even as negotiations aimed at ending the regional conflict continue and a United Nations-backed initiative begins moving vessels stranded during the fighting.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said ships that transit the strategic waterway without authorization would face consequences.
“The only authorized route for passage through the Strait of Hormuz is the route announced by the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological arm of Iran’s military, said in a statement on Thursday.
The group added that any crossing without authorization would be “unacceptable and extremely dangerous.”
The Revolutionary Guards also criticized what they described as a newly announced route through the strait established by “certain authorities.”
The warning followed comments by a spokesperson for a United Nations shipping agency, who said vessels that had been trapped during the conflict were now traveling through the Strait of Hormuz.
The International Maritime Organization said the initiative, which required months of planning and has only begun to be implemented during the ceasefire, is intended to allow hundreds of ships carrying about 11,000 seafarers stranded in the Gulf to transit the waterway.
Iran has also said it intends to impose what it describes as maritime service fees for ships using the strait rather than tolls.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio rejected that position during a Gulf Cooperation Council meeting in Bahrain.
“International waterways do not belong to any nation state. This is a foundational principle in the world today, without which the world would be in total chaos,” Rubio said.
“If in fact we accepted that you can charge money to use an international waterway because it happens to be near your territorial space, well then this will spread throughout the world like a contagion.”
Rubio said the President Trump administration remains engaged in negotiations to end the conflict through the signed memorandum of understanding but is not seeking peace “at any price” and will not accept fees imposed in the Strait of Hormuz.
The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow waterway between Iran and the Gulf states through which roughly 20% of the world’s crude oil and liquefied natural gas normally passes.
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