Iran Wants Gulf Countries To Jointly Toll Hormuz, Eyes $40Bn Windfall: 'Strait Won't Be Same Again'
Iran Wants Gulf Countries To Jointly Toll Hormuz, Eyes $40Bn Windfall: 'Strait Won't Be Same Again' Published By, Last Updated: June 25, 2026, 22:54 IST
Iran Wants Gulf Countries To Jointly Toll Hormuz, Eyes $40Bn Windfall: 'Strait Won't Be Same Again' Published By, Last Updated: June 25, 2026, 22:54 IST US President Donald Trump said Tehran had assured his administration that it would not impose tolls or other charges on ships using the strategic waterway. Rapid Read Vessels are seen anchored in the Strait of Hormuz, off the port city of Khasab on Oman’s northern Musandam Peninsula. (IMAGE: AFP) Iran is pitching the idea of charging ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz to Gulf nations while also discussing the proposal with China, estimating that levying fees for security, safety and environmental services could generate $40 billion a year in revenue for participating states. Tehran is looking to model the arrangement on the Dardanelles, where Turkey charges ships a tax known as the gold franc for passage to and from the Aegean Sea, according to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the development. “Everyone needs to know that management of the strait will never return to the way it was before," Iran’s chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said during a visit to Oman, where he discussed the proposal with officials.
The proposal, however, has drawn a sharp response from Washington. US President Donald Trump said Tehran had assured his administration that it would not impose tolls or other charges on ships using the strategic waterway. “There are no tolls, no insurance costs & no other charges of any kind being sought or received by Iran on ships traveling the Strait of Hormuz," Trump wrote in a social media post on Wednesday. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also rejected the proposal during his visit to the Gulf this week. “The reality is that no country on earth has the right to charge for the use of international waterways, and that will never be an acceptable condition of any deal," Rubio was quoted as saying by US media outlets. According to The Wall Street Journal, Iran has also discussed the proposed service-fee mechanism with China and Egypt. The newspaper further reported, citing Iranian officials, that Tehran remains open to the United States joining such a payment arrangement in the future. What Does The Dardanelles Plan Look Like? Iran is drawing inspiration from the Dardanelles Strait, the narrow waterway that separates European and Asian Turkey and connects the Black Sea to the Mediterranean.
Under the 1936 Montreux Convention, Turkey is authorised to levy a transit charge—known as the gold franc—on ships using the strait to cover services such as sanitation, lighthouses and maritime safety. For the tariff year beginning July 1, 2026, that charge has been fixed at $6.70 per tonne. Since all ships travelling between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean must pass through the Dardanelles, the arrangement has long served as one of the few internationally recognised examples of a country collecting fees for services provided along a strategic maritime passage. However, legal experts say Iran would face significant hurdles if it attempts to implement such a system. According to The Wall Street Journal, James Kraska, a maritime law professor at the US Naval War College, argued that Tehran cannot simply replicate Turkey’s Dardanelles model because it is bound by international and regional agreements governing navigation through the Strait of Hormuz. “Iran has signed international and regional agreements that ban it from imposing unilateral payments on passing ships," Kraska told the newspaper. The report added that any proposal allowing Iran to levy service charges would require the backing of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), a United Nations agency responsible for regulating international shipping.
The BriefWire