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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that Iran is not allowed to impose tariffs or fines on ships that pass through the Strait of Hormuz in accordance with any final agreement with. Washingtonmarking the biggest debate in talks aimed at ending months of conflict in the Middle East.
The dispute comes after Iran announced it would withdraw funds planned through a river that runs through its territory for 60 days while talks with the United States continue in Switzerland, indicating that the charges will only be handed down after the talks expire.
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Washington and Tehran signed a preliminary agreement in Switzerland this week to end hostilities and introduce a 60-day plan on sanctions, Iran’s nuclear program and the future management of the Strait of Hormuz.
Pakistan, which helped broker the talks along with Qatar, said talks to end the four-month-old US-Israel war on Iran are expected to resume early next week, possibly on Tuesday.
The fate of Hormuz has already emerged as a critical issue after Iran effectively blocked the waterway during the war, severely disrupting shipping through one of the world’s most important energy sources and sending oil prices soaring.
In peacetime, one-fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas is exported by Gulf producers via the waterway.
In April, the US imposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports to stop Iranian oil shipments.
Although several ships have passed through the channel since the US-Iran deal was signed last week, uncertainty remains as to whether Tehran intends to impose permanent fines or fines on shippers who use the channel. Here’s what we know – and what’s happening in the Strait of Hormuz this week.
What are the US and Iran saying?
On Friday, Iran’s Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA) said that the planned investment for vessels using the waterway would be suspended during the 60-day negotiations established under the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by the US.
Earlier this week, Iran and Oman said in a joint statement that they would study how to manage trade routes and tolls for services provided there, while maintaining their claims of sovereignty over the river’s border waters.
Speaking at the start of a regional tour in the United Arab Emirates, Rubio rejected the idea of a fine. “It is an international shipping route. No country is allowed to charge fees or charges on an international shipping route,” he said, adding that he believed “all countries in the region would agree”.
Iran’s prime minister, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, has indicated that Tehran sees the post-war system as very different from the pre-war system. Experts also say that Iran will not relinquish control of the strait, which has proven to be the most important in the conflict with the US.
“Hormuz will not return” to its pre-war status, Ghalibaf said, although both sides agreed on Monday to establish “communication mechanisms” aimed at preserving the waterway.
What does international law say?
International law protects the right to transit through waterways such as the Strait of Hormuz, prohibiting coastal states from paying fines for crossing international waterways, even if they are only passing through the surrounding area.
However, states may charge for certain services, including inspections, travel assistance, security measures and other insurance-related requirements, insurance experts say.
Examples include fees related to transit through the Suez Canal and the Panama Canal, as well as certain services provided in Turkey’s Bosporus and Dardanelles straits.
Mohammad Reza Farzanegan, economist at Philipps-Universitat Marburg, Germany, he told Al Jazeera last month that Iran, like Turkey, can justify a negotiated way of paying fees or service-based contributions through environmental issues such as payments to maintain a safe route, reduce environmental risks and provide transparency in the waterway that supports the world’s energy, food and technology.
The main difference, however, is that although these waterways cross the territory of one country at a time, the Strait of Hormuz passes through the waters of Iran and Oman, connecting with the waters used by the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf countries.
“Such planning has never been done, and there can be no such outcome, unless there is a full agreement between the countries of the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) and Iran, with the consent of major countries, such as China and the United States,” Nader Habibi, an Iranian-American economist, told Al Jazeera.
How many ships are passing through this channel?
Shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remains at a pre-war low, with between 120 and 140 ships passing through each day, including tankers carrying around 20 million barrels of oil from the Gulf.
As the crisis unfolds, Oman says it is working with the United Nations’ International Maritime Organization (IMO) on temporary arrangements to facilitate safe passage through the strait, and to begin the evacuation of more than 11,000 people stranded in the region after the conflict left hundreds of ships stranded for months.
Traffic through the strait has also been suspended due to ongoing concerns about the presence of sea mines in the middle lanes used by international shipping before the war.
The Joint Maritime Information Center (JMIC), which includes representatives from the US and other maritime partners, has warned ships to avoid the area “due to the presence of mines”.
Other countries, including Japan, are considering whether to send ships to help with efforts to clear the river of mines.
Although Iran has never confirmed the presence of mines in the strait, when it first released a map of the waterway it has agreed to pass through as the conflict continues, it ordered ships to pass close to its coast to avoid mines. The ships had already passed close to the coast of Oman.
The chart below shows the number of shipments that fell due to the US-Israeli war on Iran.
Could a dispute over cheap currency derail the peace deal?
Mostafa Khoshcheshm, a professor at the University of Applied Sciences in Tehran, told Al Jazeera that Iran is unlikely to abandon plans to introduce long-term fines in the crisis.
“According to the MoU, Iran will not pay the fine for 60 days, but after that, Iran will definitely do this,” Khoshcheshm told Al Jazeera.
He added that many Iranians were already unhappy that Tehran had agreed to suspend sanctions during negotiations.
He said: “Money is not a big issue. “The point here is how you can establish your new policies in this area. This is very important for the Iranian people.”
Cyrus Schayegh, a professor of international history and politics at the Geneva Graduate Institute, told Al Jazeera that the success of the new administration will depend heavily on regional support.
“I think this is a very big question, and the big question is whether he will be able to sell it to the Emirates,” Schayegh told Al Jazeera.
“I think Emirates will need to be involved in the best possible way for the new regime to work.”
More and more, he said, the future of Hormuz is part of the main debate on the security of the Gulf after the war.
“It’s just one part of a bigger picture,” Schayegh said, adding that several countries agree that Iran has strengthened its deterrence capabilities.
What other issues have not been resolved?
Hormuz is far from the only obstacle standing in the way of a peace deal.
Questions also remain about the future of Iran’s nuclear program, with Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs, saying that international inspectors’ access to nuclear weapons destroyed during the war will be addressed as part of the final agreement with Washington.
His comments came after US President Donald Trump said Iran had approved a “very advanced” nuclear weapons test.
Iranian officials insist that they have not made any promises to Switzerland regarding Tehran’s nuclear program and say they have not met with representatives of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), including Director-General Rafael Grossi.
Local security remains a point of contention, with Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz insisting that Israeli forces will not withdraw from southern Lebanon “even if the US wants” to do so.
Meanwhile, Mr. Ghalibaf identified the withdrawal of foreign troops from the Middle East as one of Tehran’s goals in the negotiations.
The future of Iran’s frozen economy remains up in the air, with Trump signaling Washington’s refusal to release large amounts of Iranian cash directly, saying the money could benefit the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Instead, he suggested a way in which some money could be used to buy US goods.
“Food is in dire need of Iran, and we will be buying it only from the United States,” Trump said. Iran has not confirmed plans to do so.
