By JON GAMBRELL and JOSH BOAK Associated Press
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that the United States is “reinstating” a blockade on Iran in the Strait of Hormuz and will charge other ships for safe passage. Iran has insisted it controls the critical waterway, as another exchange of fire threatened a return to all-out war.
The U.S. had until now said the strait should remain open to all without tolls, as it was before the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28. Any attempt by the U.S. or Iran to charge fees would violate global norms on freedom of navigation and raise tensions, likely causing further economic disruption far beyond the region.
Exchanges of fire in recent days, sparked by Iranian attacks on ships, had already cast further doubt on the interim peace deal reached last month. Washington lifted a blockade it imposed in mid-April as part of that deal, which also called for the strait to be fully reopened.
“We are reinstating the THE IRANIAN BLOCKADE,” Trump said on social media. “All other countries will have fair and open use of the Strait.”
The president said the U.S. would be “reimbursed” by 20% of the value of cargo to help cover “any and all costs necessary to do the job of providing safety and security.”
Iran asserts it has the right to manage traffic through the strait and potentially charge fees in accordance with the interim peace deal. It has vowed to fight back against any U.S. interference.
The struggle over the strait is escalating
A fifth of the world’s oil and gas passed through the strait before Iran effectively shut it down at the start of the war, driving up global prices of energy, fertilizer and other goods. Traffic had picked up after last month’s agreement, but remained well below prewar levels.
The American military has tried to establish a route through the strait along the coast of Oman that would be outside of Iranian control. Iran has attacked ships using that route, saying the U.S. is violating the interim peace deal. The U.S. has attacked Iran in response, drawing Iranian attacks on U.S.-allied Arab states. The U.S. also ended waivers allowing Iran to sell crude oil on the open market in U.S. dollars.
The U.S. military said it struck dozens of sites on Monday in response to an Iranian attack on a container ship the day before, including air defense systems, radar sites, missile and drone equipment, and small boats. It said it used drone ships to hit an Iranian ship maintenance facility and submarine on Sunday, calling it a first.
Before Trump’s announcement, Mohammed Mokhber, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, wrote on social media that Tehran would fight for the strait.
“We defend it so that in the future, for the passage of our ships, we are not forced to pay tribute to the enemy!” he said.
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, a key power center in the country’s theocracy that controls its ballistic missile arsenal, said the Strait of Hormuz is “our territory.”
The US had opposed any charging of fees in the strait
Meeting with Gulf leaders late last month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio had spoken forcefully against Iran charging fees for transit through the strait.
“That’s international waterway. There isn’t a nation on Earth that supports having to pay money to go through the Straits,” Rubio told reporters in Bahrain on June 25.
Rubio also said there was “zero support among the Gulf countries for any sort of toll or fees or anything that charges for the use of international waters. The president’s made it clear that’s not going to happen.”
U.S.-allied Arab states report another wave of attacks
Missile alert sirens sounded three times Monday in Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet. There was no immediate word on damage.
Separately, Kuwait’s Foreign Ministry said its consulate in Iraq had been attacked. It did not immediately blame anyone for the attack or disclose damages or casualties.
The oil-rich kingdom also condemned Iran and “its factions and militias loyal to it in Iraq” for attacking what it described as “several border points” and a maritime oil drilling platform that belonged to the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation.
Kuwait and Washington share strong ties, and the tiny country along the Persian Gulf hosts several U.S. military bases.
In Jordan, the kingdom’s military said it shot down four Iranian missiles in an incident that “resulted in zero casualties or material damage.” Jordan also hosts U.S. military forces and aircraft.
In Iran, authorities reported attacks in Hormozgan, Khuzestan and Markazi provinces and said at least two people were killed, according to state-run IRNA news agency. Semiofficial Iranian media also reported strikes in the eastern Sistan and Baluchestan province, which is on a coast of the Gulf of Oman.
The attacks continued hours after the U.S. ended its strikes — again raising the possibility of Gulf Arab states retaliating against Iran. There were unclaimed attacks on Iran on Thursday.
A base belonging to the armed wing of an Iranian Kurdish opposition group based in Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdistan region came under drone attack on Monday, according to Rebaz Sharifi, a local commander. There were no immediate details on casualties or damage. No group immediately claimed responsibility.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei blamed Washington for the chaos gripping the region, and said Iran wouldn’t agree to visits by the International Atomic Energy Agency to nuclear sites the U.S. bombed in 2025. That’s where Tehran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium is believed to be entombed.
Trump suggested last week that the interim deal in the war was “over.” But mediators, including Pakistan, Qatar and Egypt, have continued efforts to reach a final agreement to end the war.
Iran and the U.S. are nearly halfway through the 60-day period in which they were supposed to negotiate such an agreement, which was also supposed to address Iran’s disputed nuclear program.
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Boak reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Konstantin Toropin in Washington, Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut, Munir Ahmed in Islamabad and Stella Martany in Irbil, Iraq, contributed to this report.