Iranian Parliamentary Committee Approves Plan to Collect Hormuz Strait Tariffs

JAKARTA - An important committee in the Iranian parliament has approved a plan to impose toll rates for ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.

The steps approved by the National Security Commission include a series of new regulations to regulate the strategic waterway, including financial provisions requiring ships to pay transit fees using the Iranian national currency.

According to the Fars news agency report, Tuesday, March 31, one of the commission members, Mojtaba Zarei, stated that the draft law also includes restrictions on ships associated with the United States and Israel to cross the strait.

Additional provisions in the draft will also ban access for countries that join unilateral sanctions against Iran.

Although it has been approved at the committee level, the draft still has to go through a full vote in parliament, before being reviewed by the Council of the Guard and signed by the president to become law.

Tensions in the region have continued to escalate since Israel and the United States launched a joint attack on Iran on February 28, which killed more than 1,340 people, including then Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Iran retaliated by launching a missile barrage targeting Israel, Jordan, Iraq, and the Gulf states, which are home to American military assets. The attacks caused casualties and infrastructure damage, as well as disrupting global markets and the aviation sector.