Trump Claims Control Of Hormuz
President Donald Trump said the United States would reinstate a naval blockade of Iran and charge a 20-per-cent fee on cargo passing through the Strait of Hormuz, escalating a struggle over one of the world’s most important trade routes.
The confrontation over the Strait of Hormuz entered a new and extraordinary phase Monday as the United States and Iran each asserted control of the waterway. Trump said American forces would act as the strait’s “guardian” and announced that ships would be charged a 20-per-cent security fee. Iran maintained that it controlled access and expanded attacks on U.S. facilities across the Gulf after another weekend of missile and drone exchanges.
The proposal transforms a military operation into something resembling a toll system imposed on international commerce. The strait carries a critical share of the world’s oil and natural gas, so uncertainty there immediately affects fuel prices, inflation, shipping insurance and economic confidence. With diplomacy fraying and rival governments claiming authority over the same narrow passage, the risk is no longer only that the waterway closes. It is that competing attempts to control it create a lasting international crisis.
