Iran may not be able to officially close the Strait of Hormuz even as its military launches attacks on vessels in the conflict-ridden waterway, but the country appears to be setting up an unofficial toll system for ships to pass.
According to multiple members of Iran’s parliament, the Islamic republic has started charging transit fees on some commercial vessels passing through the critical artery, which harbors roughly 20 percent of the world’s supply of oil and liquefied natural gas.
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Aladdin Boroujerdi, a member of the Iranian parliament’s national security commission, told U.K.-based, Farsi-language television news outlet Iran International on Sunday that the country is charging as much as $2 million per passage through the Hormuz strait.
At the time, he said the measure had already been implemented and reflects a new “sovereign regime” in the waterway.
“Now, because war has costs, naturally we must do this and take transit fees from ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz,” Boroujerdi said.
At least two vessels transiting the strait have paid Iran for safe passage, maritime shipping publication Lloyd’s List reported on Monday.
The payments are being sought on an ad hoc basis, according to Bloomberg. It is unclear which vessels made payments, or the mechanism used.
The Iranian Embassy in India contradicted Boroujerdi’s initial comments Monday, saying the claims were “unfounded” and reflected his views, rather than the official position of Iran.
However, on Tuesday, parliament infrastructure commission member Maryam Abdollahi backed up Boroujerdi’s comments, telling Iran International of the country’s goal to “legally pursue the matter of collecting maritime tolls.”
The Strait of Hormuz has been largely off limits for most commercial vessels since the start of the war in Iran, with reports of at least 17 attacks on vessels including oil tankers, bulk carriers and container ships throughout March.
Iranian drone and missile attacks on neighboring countries throughout the war have also put ships at risk even if they are not traversing the strait, and instead idling in the neighboring Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman.
The lack of safety guarantees for vessels has caused major ocean carriers to avoid the trade conduit and suspend all bookings to the Persian Gulf. While the global container shipping industry has been largely free from operational disruption, the attempted blockade has caused a spike in oil prices and removed capacity from various services. This has ultimately contributed to increasing freight rates and spurred congestion at ports in South and Southeast Asia.
Eight vessels crossed the Strait in total Monday, marking a tie for the most in a single day since March 2—two days after the military offensive began—according to analysis from ship tracking intelligence platform MarineTraffic.
“Movements remain uneven, with no clear evidence of a sustained recovery in transits,” said Ana Subasic, trade risk analyst, MarineTraffic, in an update Tuesday. “Traffic continues to include both standard fleet and sanctioned/shadow segments, suggesting that while passage is ongoing, conditions remain constrained and operator behavior is still being shaped by elevated risk.”
On Tuesday, the St. Kitts and Nevis-flagged container ship Selen was turned back from passing through the Strait of Hormuz by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy due to “failure to comply with legal protocols and lack of a permit,” IRGC Navy Commander Alireza Tangsiri said in a post on X.
Selen departed the U.A.E.’s Sharjah Port late Monday, and was scheduled to reach Karachi Port in Pakistan by Saturday.
“Any vessel through this waterway requires full coordination with Iran’s maritime authority,” said Tangsiri.
One of the vessels that was previously struck in the channel on March 11, the Thailand-flagged bulk carrier Mayuree Naree, has been escorted through the Strait of Hormuz in the days after, the Iranian embassy in Bangkok said in its own X post Tuesday.
The news out of Iran mirrors the reports released during the Red Sea crisis, when a U.N. panel alleged that Yemen’s Houthi militia collected roughly $180 million monthly in illicit fees for safe maritime passage through the waterway.
Houthi representatives denied the claims at the time, and the panel had never been able to independently verify the claims.
The Houthis stopped their attacks on Red Sea shipping after last fall’s Israel-Hamas ceasefire, but the Iranian proxy has elevated its threats again in the wake of the ongoing Middle Eastern conflict.
The U.S.-designated terrorist organization threatened Saturday that it would enter the regional conflict in support of Iran, again warning that it plans to U.S. naval assets in the Red Sea and its chokepoint, the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait.
Ocean carriers have largely dropped their plans to return to the Red Sea as the conflict lingers.
In the two-week period ended March 22, 43 container ships transited through Suez Canal, down 33 percent from 64 transits in the two-week period ended March 8, according to data from Drewry. Of the 43 container ships, 19 were owned by China- and Hong Kong-based shipowners, with Drewry indicating that these vessels are “able or willing to risk sailing in this risky region.”
